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Philip Sealey 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in the picturesque Isle of Wight where as well as indulging my passion for writing I also work with vulnerable adults.
I have enjoyed writing since I was ten years old, initially writing short stories based on my favourite characters from books and television. Many books were started, but remain unfinished until the inspiration for the Thomas Knight Chronicles hit me,
I have completed the first three instalments of the six-part series, The Sorcerer’s Tome, Shadowmaster and Time Frame.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The latest instalment of the Thomas Knight Chronicles is Time Frame and was published in December 2019.
Right from the very start, I had intended that at some point Thomas would be transported back in time to play a part in a famous battle against evil. When I came up with the idea, I wasn’t sure exactly how it would come about, but I think that Time Frame successfully addressed that problem and has given a better insight into the story as a whole.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I supposed the way I write could be considered a little out of the ordinary. Rather than sit at a word processor, I write my first draft in a notebook with a fountain pen. Once completed I then turn to the word processor. For me, true creativity flows from the nib and onto the paper. That might be the reason my earlier attempts were never completed, they were started on a computer and have remained on the hard drive ever since.
However, following an incident that happened whilst writing Time Frame, I have had to modify my methods slightly. I stupidly left the manuscript almost three quarters completed, in a laptop bag in my car. The car was broken into and the bag taken. I was devastated. All that work lost. I could rewrite it, but it would never be the same. It would be like starting from scratch.
Although the computer and the bag were never recovered, about a month later, the notebook turned up in a carrier bag in the porchway of a friend whose address was in the bag. Whether the thief realised how much work had gone into the manuscript and returned it, or if the less valuable contents had been discarded and found by a good samaritan, I will never know, but now I always take a photocopy of the pages and keep them safe, just in case lightning strikes a second time.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
All my favourite authors have influenced me. I started as a child with Enid Blighton, John Wyndham, Phillippa Pearce, Tolkein and C.S.Lewis. As a grown-up (allegedly), I have been a big fan of Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman, J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown.

What are you working on now?
I have just started working on the fourth book in the Thomas Knight series. It is still very much in the brainstorming stage, but the plot is starting to take shape now.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Most of my promotion has been done through Amazon, but I am now exploring other sites to promote my books.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Writing is the easy bit. Getting your books out there is the hard part. The best advice I can give writers who are just starting out is never to give up on your dream. If you go the conventional route to publishing you will get rejection letters from agents – lots of them. Never let that put you off. Even J.K. Rowling received more rejection letters than Harry Potter did Hogwarts letters in The Philosophers Stone. Now, look at her.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Illegitimi non carborundum.

What are you reading now?
My son bought me the Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman for Christmas. But in order to enjoy it fully, I am working my way through His Dark Materials and La Belle Sauvage again first.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I intend to complete the Thomas Knight Chronicles before moving on to other things. I have one or two other ideas in the pipeline and I may well re-visit some of those stories that were started and never finished. I would, at some point like to fulfil a childhood ambition and write a Doctor Who story or two.

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. Of all the books out there that I have read and I still have to read how could one choose.
Put on the spot I would have to say, Lord of the Rings, Terry Pratchett’s The Death Trilogy, Pullman’s His Dark Materials and Rowlings The Deathly Hallows. Not the most intellectual of tomes, but they make me happy.

Author Websites and Profiles
Philip Sealey Website
Philip Sealey Amazon Profile

Philip Sealey’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Josh Hill 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a young author living in Utah and have just published my first book. I have started writing several but only successfully written two that have yet to be published.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Dark Raid Chronicles. It is a medieval fantasy series I am starting up, and is mainly inspired by several fantasy series most people are familiar with: Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, ect.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m a pretty straight forward writer, but I do try to find at least two different angles on a scene before I write it.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Where to begin? For starters, my older sister is a writer who inspires me daily. I am vastly influenced by Stephen King, as I am a huge fan of horror fiction as well.

What are you working on now?
I am currently editing a murder mystery novel, that I hope to finish and publish, before I start the second in my Dark Raid series.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I generally use Facebook and Instagram when I can, and the key is to constantly interact.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Constantly read. Constantly write. Constantly learn.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Focus on your mistakes, not your winnings.

What are you reading now?
I am currently rereading the Wheel of Time by Robert Jorda via Audible.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I am planning to continue in my fantasy series, as well as branch out into further branches of horror fiction. I like to write short stories around October, so that should be on the table, too.

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?
It- Stephen King
Frankenstein- Mary Shelly
A Memory of Light- Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson
Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand

Author Websites and Profiles
Josh Hill Amazon Profile

Josh Hill’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Benjamin Scribner 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m originally from New England, now living on a mountain in the panhandle of Idaho. I’m a disabled, retired Navy Seabee, and retired owner operator truck driver.
To date, I have written seven books, 5 are children’s books, 1, the first book I wrote, is about my first year in my off gird cabin. The most resent book is a book of short stories.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is titled, Meanderings of a Muddled Mind, and it’s all short stories I have written over the years, The first one I “wrote” was at the age of 4, when I told my mother, who was working on an article for a local magazine, that I wanted to write a story. She put a fresh piece of paper in the typewriter and away I went. She still has that story in a safe place, and I included it in my book.
As for inspiration, many things inspired the stories in the book, a song, something I heard, or just my imagination.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know about unusual, but I write sitting on the couch, with my laptop in my lap. It’s a small cabin and a desk would be taking up room. I also don’t force myself to write, I feel it creates bad work. I like to write when the inspiration hits, and run with it until it’s gone. I find I don’t have to go back and delete a bunch of words that were thrown on the page if I don’t force it.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh boy, that’s a tough one. There have been so many. Hemingway, Bradbury Richard Bach,
Tolkien, the late Robert Jordan. There are a few I am sure I have missed, but those are a few of the best.

What are you working on now?
Currently working on 2. A novella, and another book which encompasses the years in my off gird cabin where I left off. I have a few other things sitting around waiting for my attention, like a few more short stories and a fantasy novel I started many years ago and put aside.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have a website, and on Goodreads as well as a few other platforms, but marketing has been a struggle.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes, just write, don’t waste time trying to figure out some arbitrary rules everyone seems to think are important, they aren’t and most writers would ignore them if they even knew what they were. Also, don’t think you have to write every day, or even a set amount of time. In other words, don’t force it, or you will regret it later when you go to edit it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Pretty much the same as I wrote for advising new authors.

What are you reading now?
I often read as many as 5 books at once, currently I am reading 2. The first is a fantasy by another independent author I found on Twitter. It’s called; The Call of Chaos, the first in a series of three.
The other book, I just started is; Founding Brothers, the Revolutionary Generation. I just cracked the cover on it.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Well, as I said, I have a few more to finish. So I will most likely delve into one of them soon and try to finish it. Unless another story pushes its way into my head, as has happened before and won’t leave me alone until I write it down. Only time will tell what happens next.

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 like trying to pick a favorite child. Not something I would contemplate without driving myself crazy. Let’s just say I would try to smuggle my entire library, and then a few book stores as well.

Author Websites and Profiles
Benjamin Scribner Website
Benjamin Scribner Amazon Profile

Benjamin Scribner’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Jayson Robert Ducharme 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been writing seriously for seven years, and in that time I’ve written 40 short stories, 10 novellas and two novels, with a third on the way. I’ve been influenced primarily by Southern Gothic, Modernist, and Russian Literature.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Ceremony of Ashes: A Novella about Witchcraft and Vengeance. I grew up forty-five minutes away from Salem, Massachusetts, where the Salem Witch Trials occurred. The trials, as well as the local folklore surrounding the city served as inspiration for this book, as well as Russian folklore as well.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I use a Sterling 12 Smith Corona Typewriter to write all my first draft. I can’t write first drafts any other way. I can assure you that there’s a practical reason for this and not just for hipster points.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Mikhail Bulgakov, Nikolai Gogol, Virginia Woolf, Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Faulkner, Shirley Jackson, Cormac McCarthy, Mary Shelley have all been deeply influential to me. Prominently the short stories by Nikolai Gogol based on Ukrainian folklore, the Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, as well as McCarthy’s Tennessee novels and Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha lore and atmosphere.

What are you working on now?
Marketing Ceremony of Ashes, with plans to begin a new project in June.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Social media. Interact with your readers. Develop a relationship with them. It makes the reader-writer relationship all the more intertwined and meaningful.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
1,000 words a day is four manuscript pages. That’s a half hour to forty five minutes of your time. After a month you’ve already got one third of a novel completed. You have no excuse.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Never write your ideas down. The good ones will remain in your head.

What are you reading now?
Every marketing book imaginable and also re-reading the Brother’s Karamazov.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Paying my bills.

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 Brothers Karamazov
The Waves
Don Quixote
Absalom, Absalom

Author Websites and Profiles
Jayson Robert Ducharme Website
Jayson Robert Ducharme Amazon Profile

Jayson Robert Ducharme’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile

Meaghan Burnell 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Quite a few, which I’ve been dithering over how to share with people! I released Darkbower when quarantine became a reality because I wanted to share something inexpensive that could be enjoyed at home with friends and family. I’m very excited to be releasing the first book of new series this summer, more details to follow!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Into the Darkbower is such a great example of the complexity of the creative process, I think. Its origins are at once clear and pinpoint-finite, and totally mysterious. I had just read Matheson’s Other Kingdoms and got interested in fairies. As a rule, old-timey and European are not my stomping grounds when it comes to inspiration, but I was intrigued. As I plunged into the lore, I was fascinated by how scary it was and the idea of another world lying on top of ours. I think part of how I conceived of the darkbower owes, too, to C.S. Freidman’s phenomenal Cold Sun trilogy.
How it became a detective story told in flashbacks and replete with ungainly acronyms? No idea. This was one of those stories where I sat down at the laptop and surfaced, feeling dazed, a few months later. It just came flooding out.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Aside from two unbelievably spoiled cats who constantly interrupt me, probably not. Some people find it odd that I like to write the first third of a new novel (thereabouts) before I pump the brakes and do my world-building. I find that characters have strong personalities and I like to give them a chance to assert themselves, bend my initial premise as necessary, before I start constructing a house around them.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
So many. Gosh, I feel like this is an impossible question. I want to have the lyricism of Mervyn Peake, the punchiness of Mieville; the vividness of Bear and Faulkner. Gaiman’s humanity, Pratchett’s humor, Chabon’s pacing, Madeline’s Miller’s originality and RR Martin’s commercial success.

What are you working on now?
I plan to release the first novel in a new epic fantasy series this summer, entitled We Gather. Everything you want from an epic (swordplay and magic, intrigue and battles, fates of empires hanging in the balance) and a few twists unique to me. Gather is done, though, in a proofing stage, so technically I’m working on the sequel, We War. I’ve just finished a rough draft and am agonizing over it.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have no idea! I’m very new to this so everything is an experiment.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t be afraid to delete. Write down every idea you have and let it stew and then trash anything that doesn’t feel good. You can always produce more, it’s a limitless resource.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Persevere.

What are you reading now?
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang

What’s next for you as a writer?
Well I was supposed to attend a conference in June and have a sit-down with several agents about my fantasy novel The Spider’s Friend. So I really have my breath held to find out of that’s still happening.

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?
Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
Happy Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, duh
The Book of Flying, Keith Miller
to be clear, 20 minutes have elapsed since I typed the last, while I wandered from bookcase to bookcase, pondering
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Author Websites and Profiles
Meaghan Burnell Website

Meaghan Burnell’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Hussein Taleb 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am the Founder of SuccessGrid and I am so grateful you’re here to be part of this awesome community. I love connecting with people who have a passion for Entrepreneurship, Self Development & Achieving Success.

I currently have 3 short ebooks.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The last Book is called Internet Marketing Secrets and I wrote it to make a short introduction to Internet marketing to people who are not familiar with it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to drink tea and listen to some music during writing.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Well, Tony Robbins, David Ogilvy, Eben pagan, Robert Greene, Russel Brunson, and many others

What are you working on now?
Creating my courses and I think making them freely available

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
To be honest, I really don’t promote my ebooks that much, but once in awhile when I see and discover a new site like your I use it.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just start writing something, anything.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Just do it, action beats ideas every time

What are you reading now?
Opportunity by Eben Pagan Great one

What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing a really in-depth book on personal transformation

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 richest man in Babylon
The law of Success
and think and grow rich

Author Websites and Profiles
Hussein Taleb Website
Hussein Taleb Amazon Profile
Hussein Taleb Author Profile on Smashwords

Hussein Taleb’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Reed Stirling 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Reed Stirling lives in Cowichan Bay, BC, and writes when not painting landscapes, or travelling, or taking coffee at The Drumroaster, a local café where physics and metaphysics clash daily.

Shades Of Persephone, published in 2019, is a literary mystery set in Greece.
Lighting The Lamp, a fictional memoir, was published in March 2020.

His shorter work has appeared over the years in a variety of publications including Hackwriters Magazine, Dis(s)ent, The Danforth Review, Fickle Muses, The Fieldstone Review, Humanist Perspectives, and StepAway Magazine.

Literary mystery is Reed’s primary interest, with romantic entanglement an integral part of the action. Greek mythology and allusion to all arts underpin plot development. Irony is pervasive.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The latest book published is Lighting the Lamp, March 2020. The events of 9/11 in New York City and other events like it elsewhere in the world initiated this novel. Marcel Proust was also a source of inspiration.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Words inspire me. I write the way I do because of a great love for language.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read widely, and have done so for decades, the classics included. At present, works by Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, and John le Carré await. The muse visits me most often when I read the novels of John Banville.
My reading has definitely influenced my writing. Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandrian Quartet provided the impetus for Shades Of Persephone. John Fowles’ The Magus gave me the Greek setting. Joyce’s Portrait inspired more than one scene in Lighting The Lamp, as did the philosophical musing of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Marcel Proust plays a part here as well, as do Richard Dawkins, Emily Dickinson, and Albert Camus. The poems of Émile Nelligan are working thematically into Square Saint-Louis.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a first draft of a work tentatively titled Square Saint-Louis, where the troubles in a contemporary family mirror those of the tragic poet Émile Nelligan.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Promoting my books is new to me. It’s like dealing with a novel virus. A website like Awesome Gang offers me the opportunity to publicize my work. Recently I discovered Amazon Author Central; it allows for recognition not only here but also abroad.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be disciplined. Write every day. Observe. Read other great novelists and short story writers.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write about what you know and what you don’t know. Expand your fields of inquiry.

What are you reading now?
Among contemporary writers, I’m reading John Banville, Ian McEwan, and Richard Dawkins. Just completed Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending

What’s next for you as a writer?
Revision, revision, revision.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The complete works of William Shakespeare. The Alexandrian Quartet.

Author Websites and Profiles
Reed Stirling Website
Reed Stirling Amazon Profile

Kiran Dellimore 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am is a scientist, prolific inventor and aspiring writer who currently resides in the beautiful Dutch city of Utrecht, where I am an avid runner, squash player and rock climber. I am the author of Squash Diary: The Story of How Squash Saved My Life (2010), Fresh Ereba: A Collection of Caribbean Bedtime Stories for Children (2013&2020) and Walking in Footsteps of Promise (2019).

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is the 2nd edition of Fresh Ereba: A Collection of Caribbean Bedtime Stories for Children. I originally published Fresh Ereba in 2012 as an e-book only. Eight years later, I decided to dust it off and revitalize it for publication as a paperback. I figured it was time to give it another shot.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I often write late at night till early in the morning since this is when my mind is most often in flow.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
There are quite many. A few notable ones are: Haruki Murakami, Leo Tolstoy, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, C. L. R. James, Rumi, Maryse Conde

What are you working on now?
I am working on three books right now. A yet to be named children’s bedtime story book as a follow up to Fresh Ereba. A book about running called What I Think About When I Run. And my most ambitious book of all The Ashes From Our Tears. This will be a historical fiction novel about some of my ancestors called the Garifuna (also known as the Black Caribs). They have a compelling yet tragic story that has been largely untold. Among their many extraordinary achievements was their armed resistance against European colonization of the Caribbean island of St Vincent for nearly two centuries. Equally remarkable, the Garifuna were also the first non-white/indigenous people to ever sign an accord with a European colonial power (Great Britain). Adding further intrigue to their story is the as yet unresolved mystery surrounding the origin of the Garifuna, which remains the subject of historical and anthropological debate to this day.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am still exploring and learning more about book promotion. So far, I have found a combination of my author website (launched in March 2020) and social media (LinkedIn, Facebook) has been quite effective at getting the word out. However, I think there is definitely a long way to go!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Follow your heart in your writing. Don’t write something because it will fit with what is popular now or because you feel it will sell like hot cakes. I believe if you write from a passionate authentic place people will always appreciate it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Get an author website! It will give you agency and control of your message to the world. (For years I ignored this advice until I finally took the plunge this year and paid for a professional website. It is worth every penny!)

What are you reading now?
As part of my research for my upcoming book The Ashes From Our Tears I am reading Hiroona: An Historical Romance in Poetic Form. It is an epic poem based around the Second Carib War between the British and the Garifuna, which is the focus of my novel. So it is a wonderful history lesson and a great starting point for the development of The Ashes From Our Tears.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing, reading, travelling and more writing. I have a couple more books in 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?
Good question. At the moment I would probably choose an eclectic mix of books: War and Peace, Kafka on the Shore, Crime and Punishment and The Black Jacobins.

Author Websites and Profiles
Kiran Dellimore Website

Kiran Dellimore’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile

Ramya R. Moorthy 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Ramya R Moorthy is an IT entrepreneur with almost two decades of experience. She has worked with various leading MNCs. She holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science and she is the Founder and CEO of EliteSouls Consulting Services, India. She is an aspiring writer and motivational speaker. She is passionate about inspiring others to live their BEST lives. She currently lives in Bengaluru, India. She is reachable at ramya.happyjourney@gmail.com.

She has written 2 inspirational, self-development books – ‘A Journey in search of (not success) Happiness’ and ‘The 9 Colours of Vibrant Women’.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Published my 2nd book, ‘The 9 Colours of Vibrant Women’ in May 2020. Rapid rise in the social crimes against women across the world inspired me to write this book. Through this book, I wanted to inspire every woman to explore their strength and live an extra-ordinary life by fostering situational self-leadership.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes, I took approximately 60 days to complete 40,000 words book. I sticked to this writting pattern for both my books. May be because i have full time career, I was super focussed and highly productive to ensure i complete the book quickly.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My favourite top 10 from my big list of books that influenced me:
1. Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr.Spencer Johnson
2. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
3.How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
4.The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
5.The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
6.The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
7.The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
8.The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma
9.The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
10.The Power of your Subconscious mind by Dr.Joseph Murphy

What are you working on now?
Having career in IT field, I am busy with my software projects at work
Ofcourse, working on the theme for my next book.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
BookBub and Freebooksy

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write , Write and Write to improve your writing. While writing, write with an attitude that your book is going to become a #1 International Best Seller. Yout thoughts will drive you to create quality content that will satisfy you and readers.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Always Be Positive and give your best with focus and determination. Leave the rest to Universe. Let it take care of the outcome.” from my father.

What are you reading now?
Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill

What’s next for you as a writer?
I am working on my next book theme.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Power of Now
The Power of Positive Thinking
Bhagavad Gita

Author Websites and Profiles
Ramya R. Moorthy Amazon Profile

Ramya R. Moorthy’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Chris Durston 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m an oddball from the South West of England, and I’ve wanted to be a writer for just about as long as I can remember. I’ve only recently developed the balls to actually do anything about it, though; Each Little Universe is my first published novel, although I have a bunch more stories in various states of finishedness going back to when I was in primary school.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Each Little Universe was inspired by… just the way I see the world, I think. It’s a mishmash of all sorts of bizarre, joyously stupid pop culture references framing what might or might not be serious philosophical questions; alternatively, it’s a bunch of vague allusions to philosophy framing a core of nerdy dumbness.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have very few habits! I’m hoping to become much more disciplined, since releasing one book has really just made me want to do more, but as of right now I’m pretty haphazard.

I do tend to listen to more music than I think most writers do, often music that doesn’t really fit the mood of the scene I’m writing at the time.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Neil Gaiman and Haruki Murakami’s way of seeing the world – a world very much like our own, just a bit more strange – really resonated with me. I read a lot of nonfiction – about neuroscience, astrophysics, philosophy, all sorts – and take as many of the strangest ideas from it as I possibly can to work into stories that explore as much of the big, weird world as I can.

What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on a collection of short stories: an anthology set in a dark world following the fall of human civilisation thanks to the sudden appearance of a gargantuan whale in the sky. In its shadow, strange and Lovecraftian things start to happen.

Plus I’m in the process of turning a play that a friend and I wrote in university into a novel, which is a totally different experience.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Still playing around! I’ll let you know when I find out.

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

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

What are you reading now?
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, Shi Naian’s Water Margin, and Daniel Levitin’s Field Guide To Lies And Statistics.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m not sure. We’ll see.

My only hope, really, is just to write.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Murakami’s 1Q84; Hofstadter’s Godel, Escher, Bach; Pullman’s His Dark Materials; Tolkien’s The Silmarillion.

Author Websites and Profiles
Chris Durston Website
Chris Durston Amazon Profile

Chris Durston’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Carol Novis 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a retired journalist who has lived in Canada, where I was born, in England, South Africa and Israel. I have written three books – a children’s book, “The Adventures of Mary Fairy” and two cozy mysteries in the “Tension on a Pension” series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Knock Off the Old Block”. It’s about senior sleuths who try to solve a murder in a Jewish retirement home. It was inspired by my late mother, who lived in a retirement home (minus the murders) and was full of information about the gossip, etc that went on. She convinced me that age 80 is the new 12.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
no

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love many cozy mysteries, particularly English ones. Beaton is a favorite.

What are you working on now?
thinking about the third in the series.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Probably advertising on Amazon, or Facebook

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Go for it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”

What are you reading now?
a stack of cozies.

What’s next for you as a writer?
who knows?

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
War and Peace, Middlemarch, How to build a raft.

L. Stanley 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written one book so far and have another coming out in 2021, as well as sequels to my first book, 2051, on the horizon.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
2051 was inspired by all the science fiction and dystopian novels I love, a book looking at the future of the world, crime and society. I love crime television shows as well so that is a huge inspiration, as well as having studied law as well as my degree in English Language & Literature.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to write in bulk. So I plan then write masses and then tend to have sever writers’ block. Like a year or something like that!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Margaret Atwood, JK Rowling of course, Malorie Blackman, Toni Morrison but most of all I would say Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wuthering Heights and Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a novel called Consortium, a romance and political book cased on high society only set in the future the the rules have changed but society is still the same.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t think I have a favourite!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Stay true to your original ideas and don’t worry about what sells. People like authenticity and it reads.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t worry about what other people think. Be selfish. That was probably my partner saying that, he tells me that almost every day.

What are you reading now?
A Dance with Dragons part 1 by George R. R. Martin.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Finish my second book!

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I would bring paper to write my next three or four books.

L. Stanley’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Janine Watkins 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Born and raised in California, Janine currently lives in Minnesota. How did that happen? Well, shortly after moving to NYC, she met the love of her life while working as a field engineer at NYC’s LaGuardia Airport. Yes, she was a Civil Engineer by trade, but she was willing to trade it in to become an author, fitness instructor, and world traveler. Yes, she is smiling as she writes this because she is following her passions over pursuing a paycheck; it feels magical. So far, I have written 4 books; the first of the series has finally been published.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Most of Janine’s inspiration for her Sonder Lives saga came from Burning Man, her understanding of collected workspace “norms”, and her “so-far” very successful world-traveling expeditions. She enjoys writing speculative fiction; anything to do with warping time and diving into her inner curiosities of this universe gets her jellies all tingly.

Janine’s hope is that Sonder’s saga instills in all of its readers the curiosity about what our world would look like if we were 100% responsible for ourselves in our pursuit of happiness. This goes beyond self-discovery; this is a call to become your own black magic. Yes, one must go beyond their defined words if they are to ever discover this limitless world our “Sonder Lives”; see you there.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
As a first time author, I think this whole process was unusual. The habit thought to be the most peculiar was that stroke of genius that comes on the verge of falling asleep. The will to hang on and hammer out the last paragraph that sounds magical . . . until you wake up the next day and find out it makes no sense.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Brave New World and The Alchemist were huge influences for my book finding its voice.

What are you working on now?
Sonder Lives: Everything and Nothing

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I promote through Amazon, Instagram, and Facebook.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Find your voice and hold onto it; once you find your voice, you will start to see that every form of writing you do, you will hear it. If you start becoming frustrated by edits and comments that people provide, congratulations; you are one step closer to owning what you wish to claim as your tone of voice.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Finish. Even if you think it’s crap; finish what you’ve started.

What are you reading now?
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

What’s next for you as a writer?
Cover design for my next 3 books; also I need to find an illustrator for my children’s book.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
“How to Get Off a Desert Island Alive”, “Mindful Meditation”, “Learn Astral Projection”, and “You might Die on an Island”

Author Websites and Profiles
Janine Watkins Website
Janine Watkins Amazon Profile

Janine Watkins’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Dave Seidl 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born and raised in Troy Michigan. I am one of three kids. Graduated from Oakland University in 2006 and Charis Bible College in 2016. I have a blog called God Needs New PR and hope to have my own church one day. I have written two books.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The One Thing You Need To Know About God. I read the book The One Thing, which is what inspired it. I had time during the shelter in place period of 2020 and wanted to find a way to reach others about the love of God. I had old blog posts that I thought I could repurpose and orgainze better which few had read. This is how the book came about.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. I like to write at night and give myself at least 2 hours, sometimes it takes like 4-5 hours though.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Greg Henry, Maurice Cabirac, Gary Keller

What are you working on now?
An online Bible school

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Social media

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just start. I had no idea I would write two books. I just started writing. It was like therapy and before I knew it, I had enough material. Then it was just a matter of organizing it. I’m very glad I did. I feel very productive and like they will be some of the best things I ever accomplish.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Focus on one thing at a time…the rest doesn’t mean anything.

What are you reading now?
The Lie by Maurice Cabirac

What’s next for you as a writer?
Continuing to blog and podcast. We’ll see. Not really sure.

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 Lie
The One Thing

Author Websites and Profiles
Dave Seidl Website

Dave Seidl’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

DIXITA GALIYAL 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Dixita Galiyal was born in Thane, Maharashtra (India) and grew up in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. She studied Instrumentation & Control Engineering in 2014 from Gujarat Technological University (GTU). For the last 5 years, she has worked mainly in SAP & IT Industry where her forte is. She’s the author of the book, Online Marketing HACKS, which is her first ever book published on Amazon and now her second book, Top-Notch Business Ideas & Business Models for 2020, is going to be launched soon!

After her graduation, she’d developed websites for various healthcare and manufacturing clients based in the US, and worked on numerous SAP Live projects with individual clients in South Wales, Montreal, New Jersey and London.

She recently founded and launched her first Digital-Tech Enterprise called, DixitaGaliyal.com (former SAP Expert Solutions), provides 24X7 support and SAP solutions to the clients worldwide, provides free guidance and mentorship in online marketing and online business for small-scale industries and entrepreneurs. Dixita’s globally certified in SAP ABAP, Screen Personas, S/4HANA, SAP BO, SAP HANA Cloud Platform and much more.

Official Dixita Galiyal (Former SAP Expert Solutions) launched last year, but she’s been implementing it for the last 5 years. The author’s aim is to help others like her learn all the essential technical, marketing and business skills to flourish in today’s competitive online market. Her mission is to help individuals start an online business and become successful entrepreneurs or grow their existing businesses using advanced front-line marketing strategies.

Besides being a tech-savvy, she’s an outdoor sports junkie, loves reading and is a dog person! She likes reading Fiction, Non-Fiction, Sci-Fi, Electronic Gadgets, Autobiographies, Business Magazines and is a fan of Action & Horror movies.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest book, which is my second book is: Top-Notch Business Ideas & Business Models for 2020.
This was a project that my team and I had been working on for over 10 months now. A book that took me a year to write. The reason why I wrote this book in the first place is that there’s no better time for business owners and entrepreneurs to setup & launch their own scalable business and make money while they sleep.
Top-Notch Business is amazing. And I truly believe it will help thousands of entrepreneurs worldwide.

What are you working on now?
At present, I’m working on independent projects on SAP with three different clients. Apart from that, I’m working on developing my online courses on the same.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The best method to advertise a book is to run Ads. Following are some of the best websites to promote your books:
1. Book Reader Magazine
2. Awesome Gang
3. Pretty Hot
4. Amazon KDP (Free Book Promotion)
5. My Book Place
6. FreeBooksy
7. Book Goodies
8. Author Marketing Club
9. Just Kindle Ebooks

What’s next for you as a writer?
As a writer, I’d love an autobiography someday. But for the near future, I’ve planned to write fiction stories.

 

Author Websites and Profiles
DIXITA GALIYAL Website
DIXITA GALIYAL Amazon Profile

DIXITA GALIYAL’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Bethany Atazadeh 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m obsessed with creating worlds and have written two sci-fi novels (a duology called The Number Series), and now four fantasy novels (The Stolen Kingdom Series). Two of which are published, and the third releases on June 30th. I’ve also dabbled in non-fiction and co-write a series called Marketing for Authors with my good friend and fellow author, Mandi Lynn.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Cursed Hunter, which is a Beauty and the Beast retelling in a series of fantasy retellings. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale and so I’ve been dying for people to read this particular book for a long time! It’s also heavily featuring a heroine who helps herself because I adore stories that allow the girl to save herself!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I tend to do my best writing between midnight and four a.m.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have made so many author friends in the last few years of writing and publishing, but the author that first made me truly consider writing was Marissa Meyer. I remember reading an interview where she’d explained that she wrote not one but three (I think?) novels during a NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month in November). When I heard that, I remember thinking, hey it can’t be that hard. (Spoiler, it’s extremely hard but totally worth it.)

What are you working on now?
Working on the fourth book in The Stolen Kingdom Series, called The Enchanted Crown, which is a Sleeping Beauty retelling but with a focus on the villain, and which will wrap all the first three books in the series with lots of juicy secrets revealed and finally more time spent in Jinn.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I personally love Instagram, although I’m taking a short break from it, and enjoy the casual atmosphere there where I can talk about books and writing with fellow readers and writers.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t stop! The people who persevere and are willing to learn are the people who become published authors.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Also don’t stop lol.

What are you reading now?
I just finished “The Stars We Steal” by Alexa Donne and really enjoyed it!

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve been dabbling in a new idea, but I don’t want to share too much just yet, it’s still pretty new.

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?
Hmm… Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, Graceling by Kristen Cashore, Cinder by Marissa Meyer, and The Winners Curse by Marie Rutkoski.

Author Websites and Profiles
Bethany Atazadeh Website
Bethany Atazadeh Amazon Profile

Bethany Atazadeh’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile

Michael L. Williams, Jr 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Michael Mickey Williams Jr. an Atlantic City New Jersey native was once homeless, eating food out of trash cans, suicidal, addicted to heroin, and crack cocaine. He spent 22 years of his life in-and-out of jails and rehabilitation centers since he was a teenager. Nowadays, however, he’s married, a substance abuse counselor, a minister, and a ten-time published author with titles like “Pushed out the Crack House into God’s house, My Purpose is Greater than my struggles, and I’m a Giant Killer to name a few, he’s also one of the Co-founders of The Minor Adjustments Program which is dedicated to preventing and reducing crimes, their primary purpose is to teach men and women how to make the “Minor Adjustments” that are necessary for their lives, Their motto is “Anywhere but backward” Mr. Williams is a dedicated advocate for those who are struggling with addictions or criminal lifestyles, mainly because he struggled with those same barriers.

Beyond the Minor Adjustments Program, It is said that he was named “Preacher Boy” by his beautiful wife Lernell Apple Williams, his style of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes it easy for him to communicate to both the common people and the religious, his stated that he tries to use everyday language already familiar to his culture, with a purpose to always try to touch individual personal needs at the same time communicate spiritual truth.

As a father of seven, with four grandkids he credits his parents as the source of his perseverance and sense of self-reliance. After 22 years of being in bondage to addiction, Mr. Williams continues to be one of today’s most inspirational, encouraging, and influential men today.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
This is your SHIFTING season It’s time to CHANGE course en route to your DESTINATION!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes, I write in my head and then put them on paper when I get home.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Td Jakes the Crushing
All of A.W. Tozer

What are you working on now?
Developing my online presence to connect with my readers.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
https://awesomegang.com/

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Never give up on your dream as a writer, when you aren’t seeing the money come in from your writing it doesn’t mean that the book is bad it just means that you haven’t got the book in the right reader’s hands.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you don’t reach the success in that is yours, look in the mirror because that’s the only person who can stop you.

What are you reading now?
One minute prayer for husbands.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To start going around speaking and promoting my newest book and doing live book reviews.

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 talk back to the devil A.W. Tozer
Satan you can’t have my children
the compound effect
Pushed out the crack house into Gods house

Author Websites and Profiles
Michael L. Williams, Jr Website
Michael L. Williams, Jr Amazon Profile

Michael L. Williams, Jr’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account