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Robert Ramsay 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m 55, from the UK, and my day job is something dull in IT. Although I did once save the Swedish Stock Exchange.
I’m primarily a lyricist and spoken word artist, so although I’ve contributed to something like twenty or thirty albums, I’ve only written the one book so far. The catch is that it’s taken me thirty years and is basically my life’s work, away from music.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
It’s called ‘The Engineering of Coincidence: a scientific explanation of magic” and it is the culmination of my twin lifelong interests of science, and things that current science can’t explain, normally mischaracterised as “supernatural” and “paranormal”. I wanted to explain some of these unexplained things without going on about “vibrations in the ether” and “the gypsies coming from Atlantis” and all that rubbish.
It turns out that current science actually has a few tricks up its sleeve that can make things much more straightforward.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m very, very, lazy. This does, however, dovetail nicely with the fact that I need a long time to think about things before coming to any definite conclusions. Which is why this book has taken thirty years to write.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh, loads. Sean Carroll, Peter Carroll, Lewis Caroll…
The first books I bought when I started researching this subject were Arthur Koestler’s “The Roots of Coincidence” and Nick Herbert’s “Quantum Reality”. The book that really blew me away though is David Deutsch’s “The Fabric of Reality”. Amazing book.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on my second album. Very, very, slowly. So far, I have a few sketches, an album cover and a title. My first album is called “Confound and Disturb” and this one is going to be called “Press to Exist”.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m hoping this one!
So far, I’ve had the best results with Facebook advertising. Amazon is great, but people normally come to Amazon looking for something, and I think they are less open to adverts because of that.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write first. Edit later. It’s much easier to rearrange and nip and tuck what you’ve already written than it is to write it in the first place. So try and turn off any internal criticism and worry that would normally go through your brain and get the words down. If it turns out to be rubbish, you will have plenty of time to get rid of it. And then write something better.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”. Especially if you can follow it up with “…but I’m going to try and find out!”

What are you reading now?
Tom Siegfried’s “The Bit and the Pendulum”. It’s about whether information can be considered to be a physical thing. I feel sure I’ve missed something vital about the nature of information, so I’m reading this book to give me an overview that I can start thinking about.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have a few short stories buried here and there. Maybe I will complete some of the uinfinished ones and put them all together into a 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?
“The Wall of Years” by Andrew Stephenson. An obscure science fiction book about parallel universes, and the Saxons.
“The Fabric of Reality” by David Deutsch, for reasons mentioned earlier.
“The Book of the Ler” by M.A. Foster. Another obscure science fiction (trilogy this time) about a parallel race of humans.

Author Websites and Profiles
Robert Ramsay Amazon Profile

Robert Ramsay’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Robert Brunelle 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a retired policeman, and I have published one book, Miracle at Del Norte. I have written 9 Lives of Badge 656-A Policeman’s Memoir and I am writing the second book in the trilogy. I have another book called The Fender, which I am having edited. I wrote my first story when I was in grammar school and it was published in a national magazine, The Saint Anthony Messenger. Later, I became Editor-in-Chief of my high school newspaper, then Sports Editor of my college newspaper. I worked one summer as a cub-reporter for my home town newspaper, the El Monte Herald. I also worked briefly for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner as a reporter. I have a B.S. in Law Degree and a Juris Doctor Degree from SoCal College of Law. Now that I am retired, writing is my daily hobby. I also do oil paintings. I am married with 6 children, 17 grandchildren and one great grandson.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is 9 Lives of Badge 656 – A Policeman’s Memoir. It was inspired by my first 10 years as a street cop in the LAPD.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes, I have a bad habit of working on 3 or 4 novels at the same time, all different genres.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Joe Wambaugh, Michael Connelly, and Charles W. Colson.

What are you working on now?
Book 2 in the Trilogy: The Adventures of Super Trick – A Vice Cop’s Memoir. It’s about my time in Hollywood Vice during the time of the Hillside Stranglers in the late 1970s.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
It’s hard to beat running ads on Amazon, Google and Facebook.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write, write, write. Edit, edit, edit. And, then write some more. Do that for a minimum of 2 hours a day.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t ever give up.

What are you reading now?
L.A. Noir by John Buntin. In a nutshell, it’s about LAPD’s Chief Parker versus the mob’s Mickey Cohen for the city of Los Angeles.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I plan to publish another book in November and another one before my birthday in February. Then turn a murder mystery script I wrote into a novel. It’s a true story and still unsolved after 50 years.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
1. How to find food on a desert island. 2. How to build a raft on a desert island. 3. The bible. 4. A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

Author Websites and Profiles
Robert Brunelle Website

Michael Gage 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have been writing sci-fi, fantasy, and horror for nearly 25 years. “To Hell and Back, Book One: Survival” is my first adult SFF story. Also my first published novel.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“To Hell and Back, Book One: Survival”

It was inspired by a single question and challenge that I asked of myself. “Can erotica be a legitimate story element in a “serious” novel?

Too often, anything erotic is treated as either an excuse for portraying mindless, unrealistic, and frankly boring, sexual encounters – or it is white-washed with a “fade to black” hand wave as if it were something shameful. Both extremes miss the point. Sex is much more than just a physical act. At its best, it is intensely emotional and heartfelt. It is also nothing to be ashamed of. We should celebrate our sexuality, not hide from it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I am an ADD writer. After a few months, I have to switch gears to an entirely different genre for a while to keep my creative energy levels topped off.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
The first books I ever read at the tender age of 11 was all seven books in “The Chronicles of Narnia” series by CS Lewis. I followed that up with a copy of “Cujo” by Stephen King that I stole from my mother. It’s been downhill ever since!

I love reading the works of the titans of speculative fiction such as Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Isaac Asimov, Piers Anthony, Roger Zelazny, and George Martin.

What are you working on now?
Book 2 in the “To Hell and Back” series as well as a half-finished traditional fantasy novel and a barely started space opera.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Too soon to say. This one I hope!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read the authors you admire. Then go back to the parts that moved you and then read them again, one word at a time. Study the words they use and the precise sentence, paragraph, and chapter structure that they use. Only by studying the best can you hope to become the best.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Mark Twain.

What are you reading now?
“On Writing” by Stephen King to learn something new. I am also proofreading a 2nd draft for a young, hopeful writer in hopes of being able to teach something new. What goes around comes around.

What’s next for you as a writer?
“To Hell and Back, Book 2: Rebellion” begins a new adventure for me in crafting a social media presence to work in conjunction with a brand new Patreon page.

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?
“Armor” by John Steakley.
“Chronicles of Amber” by Roger Zelazny
“Robinson Caruso” by Daniel Defoe
“How to Survive on a Deserted Island” by anybody

Author Websites and Profiles
Michael Gage Website
Michael Gage Amazon Profile

Michael Gage’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

BILLY MORAN 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a writer for quite a few TV shows in the UK including a well-known comedy series called Horrible Histories. But September 2020 sees the launch of my debut novel – it’s pretty exciting! I have two kids, and the birthday cards they just gave me showed my front cover, with some blurb on the back about what a great dad I am. Clearly I’m not though, and they just want me to get off my computer!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My book’s called DON’T WORRY, EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE AMAZING and it’s a mystery inspired by a couple of my big obsessions – self-help culture, male mental health, and my experiences in the 90s rave scene.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Start early – drink caffeine – total silence – finish early – drink wine – noisy music – bed – read – sleep – repeat!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
A pivotal experience for me was discovering Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl. Since then, so many authors have inspired me, but the ones who stand out are Gail Honeyman, Agatha Christie, Jennifer Egan, Ian Rankin, John Steinbeck, Donna Tartt, Matt Haig, Irvine Welsh, Ben Aaronovitch, RJ Palacio, Dave Eggers, Sally Rooney, John Niven, John Kennedy Toole, Belinda Bauer, Joseph Heller and Harland Miller.

What are you working on now?
I’m really busy promoting DON’T WORRY and plotting its follow-up – it’s the first in a series called the FRIENDS ON BENEFITS MYSTERIES.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
It’s going to be Awesome Gang – I can just tell! I have a Book Bub new release promo coming up. And in the past I’ve used Facebook a lot with some gift books I’ve written.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write a bit every day.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write a bit every day.

What are you reading now?
The Salt Path.

What’s next for you as a writer?
The follow up to DON’T WORRY, EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE AMAZING, as it’s the first in a series called the FRIENDS ON BENEFITS MYSTERIES.

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?
Trainspotting – best book ever, will learn it off by heart, although I think I might already have done that.
The Rattle Bag – nothing like memorising poems to kill some time!
A quiz book – to stop my brain from dying.
A phone book – so I could make some prank calls to entertain myself.

Author Websites and Profiles
BILLY MORAN Website
BILLY MORAN Amazon Profile

BILLY MORAN’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Ermelinda Makkimane 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Ermelinda Makkimane has recently published her debut book, “Her Story” –  a feminist poetic retelling of Mary’s story from the Bible. Ms Makkimane’s poems have appeared in anthologies. She is working on a series giving voice to some of the marginalized women characters in the Bible.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book “Her Story” was partly inspired by the long walk of migrants traveling along highways back home during the Covid-induced lockdown in India. Several harrowing stories emerged. Some were of women birthing babies by the roadside and resting for a few hours before resuming their walk, baby in tow.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I usually “write” on my mobile.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
The books of the New Testament

What are you working on now?
The second book in the “Her Story” series on the woman healed of chronic hemorrhage.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still a novice in this.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t give up. Alongwith writing your book, be ready to promote it as well.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Your voice is unique.

What are you reading now?
The Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
A Brief History of Humankind, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
The Norton Anthology of Poetry
Collected short stories (miscellaneous)

Author Websites and Profiles
Ermelinda Makkimane Website
Ermelinda Makkimane Amazon Profile

Erik Meyers 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
An American abroad for years and years who has lived or worked in six countries on three continents, the longest in Germany, where I currently live. I’m a communications professional with 25 years of expertise in a variety of corporate roles, including a broad range of communications disciplines, technical writing and translation, and corporate strategy. Reading and writing are my passions, when I’m not hiking one of the amazing trails in Germany or elsewhere. My motto is “fight the hype” and I enjoy taking a unique, perhaps unorthodox, view of the current topics and trends.

I published my first (business) book this year in June “The Accidental Change Agent” on Amazon in paperback and ebook. I still can’t believe I’m an author!

I’ve also written a LGBT+ historical fiction novel (ready for pitching), a detective story (editing), a thriller/horror screenplay (editing) and numerous short stories. Some of the short stories have been published on Reedsy.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book that is in editing mode is a detective story set in the Ozarks in Arkansas. I love reading detective stories and decided to write my own! I chose the location because I was there in 2015 and just loved it. For me it was a mysterious area with a delicious small-town feeling.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think so. When writing a novel, I always set myself a daily goal of 1-3 pages. It may not seem like a lot, but you really make progress when you work this way. When I was in the process of writing the first draft of my detective story, I was really surprised when one day, only about a month after I started, I was done (well done with the first draft)

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My favorite authors are W. Somerset Maugham, David Leavitt, Agatha Christie, Gladys Mitchell and many others. I love reading all kinds of books, thought usually they are historic fiction, non-fiction biographies, or detective stories.

What are you working on now?
I’m taking a deep look at my screenplay and will be starting a complete rework soon. Otherwise, I’ve been doing a detailed marketing plan for my business book “The Accidental Change Agent” and been trying to write a short story once a week. I also just started a blog on Living Abroad (https://erikmey.wordpress.com/), which has gotten so much great feedback and questions.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m just starting promoting my business book and just trying channels and content out. I’ve been focusing on Twitter and LinkedIn for the moment because they are more business-focused channels, but there’s lots more to do!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My first goal in writing was always to be able to show that I could complete a work (even if just a first draft). Don’t make your goal to become a bestselling author or who you will be gravely disappointed.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t worry what other people think. Be yourself!

What are you reading now?
I’m reading “Deep Work” by Cal Newport, “Fascism” by Madeleine Albright, and “Death in White Pyjamas” by John Bude.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ll be starting the editing process for my detective story soon and let’s see where that takes me. I’m going to continue writing short stories. And when I’ve revamped the screenplay, I’ll be in touch with Hollywood to pitch it. Lots going on for me at the moment and it’s wonderful!

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?
Agatha Christie “4:50 from Paddington”; an Atlas; The Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Author Websites and Profiles
Erik Meyers Amazon Profile

Erik Meyers’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tiziano Brignoli 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am Italian, I have 28 years old and I live in a small mountain town in North Italy. I have started to write in the spring of 2017, and from then I wrote so much – complete books, essays, short stories, simple notes. I have self published five books here in Italy, and have just published my first book translated in English, which is a long literary essay about F. Scott Fitzgerald – my favorite author! The name of the book is “F. Scott Fitzgerald: Some sort of epic grandeur.”

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My last published work is a travel book about a trip I took in New York in 2016. I share thoughts and most of all anecdotes that defined that wonderful experience, which was my first trip ever. The Italian title is “Tutta la potenza della vita.” It come from the words that author Thomas Wolfe wrote to editor Max Perkins about the life in New York – “All the power of life.”
In the fall of 2020 I will publish a novella about and set in London. It’s pretty much autobiographical. This is another city that in many ways changed my life in better.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Actually not. I am pretty regimented when I write. I try to write every day – every morning to be fair. I try to write a few pages, or at least edit some chapters with some new writing in it. I always try to do my best job. But as you know, writing is pretty hard in the long period, so sometimes I take some time off (could just be a couple of weeks) to recharge and start better than ever.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
As I previously said, surely F. Scott Fitzgerald changed my views on books and literature. His words and prose were so deep, intense and vivid in their expressivity that should be studied in writing schools or in book clubs. And also, I love the story of his life, his relationship with Zelda. It is all so fascinating.
I also love modern writers too. I am a fan of Richard Paul Evans books, both about Christmas and those about the meaning of life itself. They really can change your whole perspective about things.
I always try to assimilate something (even a little bit) from every writer I love or appreciate.

What are you working on now?
On so much things! I have always two, three or more projects on the computer or desk at the same time. Of course, I try to organize everything at best as I can, so the work is less chaotic as possible.
At this moment I’m working on an autobiography about my childhood in my hometown. It’s very touching writing it. Even painful sometimes for some memories I’m putting in it. But I love writing my story and I can’t wait to see published. Also, I’m editing a new collection of short stories dedicated to the different character and way of life of American people.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
From my first book published, I tried so many ways to promote my work. Facebook ads in my case didn’t work very well. I always try to write a few articles on my personal blog, share behind the scene of the writing of that book, or share some photos on social media. A good method that I’m trying and seems to work are the ads on Amazon. They works better than those on the social media. And of course, last but not least, just talk. Spread the voice to friends, talk about the book during a coffee at the local bar, etc…

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I know that could be sound like something heard a million times, but read as much as you can, even when you are not in the mood, and write as much as you can, even when the words don’t come naturally to you. Try to write a little bit every day. And of course, don’t give up. It will be a long and difficult road for much of the time, but in the end, will be a wonderful journey.

What are you reading now?
Right now I’m finishing the wonderful and deep collection of essays about life in a Wyoming ranch titled “Where rivers change direction” by Mark Spragg. In the next days I will start “Norwich”, the olympic (literally) story of a small and rural Vermont town by Karen Crouse.

Author Websites and Profiles
Tiziano Brignoli Website
Tiziano Brignoli Amazon Profile

Tiziano Brignoli’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Jane Holmes 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a mom, a grandmother, a former biker, a singer, song-writer, carpenter, quilter, and a busy homemaker. I have travelled to many parts of the world on short-term mission trips and play the piano to relax. Gardening is a pleasure and reading and writing are a joy. Helping others is the main focus in her life and there is never a dull moment. Creating and reciting poetry is a favorite activity. She says that we all have a story to tell. Be brave. Tell it!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My book is titled Learning To Live Lightly: the ABCs of How To Get There. I was inspired to write it when Covid-19 came on the scene and shut down normal routines. Since I like to write and have stories to tell, it seemed like the best opportunity to spend time in this way. It was an ad on the internet about Self-Publishing School that caught my attention. I signed up and embraced the journey, the learning curve, the technology, and the coaching that made it all possible. And here I am promoting my first book. What a thrill!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write everything out by hand as if I am talking to someone, then organize and reorganize it to be typed up in a document. Making a mind map is the best way to begin. Get all the ideas on a page and keep it for your reference for the whole project.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Everything I read is non-fiction. Paul Tournier, Deitrich Bonhoffer, Elton Trueblood, John Maxwell, Max Lucado, Sarah Young, EllenG.White,

What are you working on now?
Completing the promotions for this first book.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Just starting out. I don’t know.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Get at it! Stay at it! Get it done!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Trust the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Prov. 3: 5,6.

What are you reading now?
Teach Your Children About Racism by Uchenna L. Umeh, MD/MBA

What’s next for you as a writer?
Learning How to grow my business with the continuing help of Self-Publishing School

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
Ellen G. White’s writings
My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers

Author Websites and Profiles
Jane Holmes Website
Jane Holmes Amazon Profile

Jane Holmes’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Joss Sheldon 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m five-foot-seven, with brown eyes, I’m getting fatter by the year, and I’m strangely alluring to cats. They seem to turn up, from out of the woods, and demand that I adopt them.

I have written six books. They’re blimming amazing, and you should probably read them all.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I explain my motivation in the introduction of “DEMOCRACY: A User’s Guide”. Here is what I say…

“My previous book, “Individutopia”, tackled one of the subjects we will discuss Part Four: The corporatocracy. In Individutopia, the main character seeks to free
herself from corporate control; going in search of the sort of earthy, small-scale democracies we shall meet in Chapter One.
Individutopia was well received by most readers, but a couple of one-star reviews did stand out. The first called it, “Insane leftist propaganda… (that) rang like a communist manifesto”. The other suggested we should accept corporate control because, “Over one-hundred-million people were murdered by communist and socialist regimes in the Twentieth Century alone”.
Such reviewers seem to believe that there are just two political systems: American-style capitalism and Russian-style communism. We should accept corporate control because the only alternative is so ghastly that its death-toll is nine digits long.
I wrote this book to lay such a belief to rest (and to add some substance to the topics covered somewhat more whimsically in my novels).
In reality, these two political ideologies both involve top-down control. The former gives power to corporations, banks, plutocrats, and yes to governments too. The latter gives all the power to the state.
I dislike both ideologies. I want to live in a world in which no-one rules us from the top-down. For me, this is the essence of “Democracy” – a system in which the power is held by all the people, or at least by the majority.
Perhaps this definition is different from your own. If it is, I hope you can bear with me!”

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I spend a lot of my time wrestling cats whilst writing. They have a habit of climbing up onto my lap, and even onto my keyboard itself.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
David Graeber sadly passed away a couple of days ago. I can’t believe that. It’s so sad. The guy was an utter legend, and a true inspiration. His book, “Debt”, inspired me to write Money Power Love. “Bullshit Jobs” inspired the third section of Occupied and all of Individutopia. I quote the guy regularly in “DEMOCRACY: A User’s Guide”.

George Orwell and Salman Rushdie are also big inspirations. They’re like the kings of political fiction, aren’t they?

Gabriel García Márquez’s style, in “Love in a Time of Cholera”, really helped me to write Money Power Love. I re-read some Kafka and “A Brave New World” before writing “Individutopia”. And I had fun putting in Shakespearean insults into my first book, “Involution & Evolution”. That guy sure did have a way with words!

I love reading stuff by Naomi Klein, Owen Jones, Paulo Coelho, Milan Kundera, Ha-Joon Chang, Dan Ariely – to name just a few of the greats.

What are you working on now?
My garden!

I like to take a few weeks off after I’ve completed a book. “DEMOCRACY: A User’s Guide” took about 18 months to research, write and edit. I was working pretty much every day, and it left me sort of drained. So I need a bit of a break. I’m going to build a new set of steps, up the hill which leads to my house, and I’m going to build a pond for the 18 ducklings I bought that are soon going to turn into ducks.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon Adverts. They’re not as good as they once were, but most of my sales come through adverts on Amazon.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Hmm.

Follow your heart, write want you want to write, and don’t expect to sell a single copy.

Or write the sort of stuff you know sells, in the same style as other authors, and you might just sell a few copies. But even then, don’t expect to sell a single copy.

The key is to promote, promote, promote.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Take all advice with a pinch of salt.

What are you reading now?
“Incidents in the life of a slave girl”.

It’s research for my next project…

What’s next for you as a writer?
I feel it’s time to write my first ever series. I’m thinking a work of historical fiction, inspired by Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the Haitian Slave Revolution…

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?
Big ones! Ones which would take a lot of time to read, and thus keep me occupied for a while. Ones which could be turned into toilet paper and kindling thereafter.

I suppose “War And Peace” springs to mind. I’ve never had the time to read that before. Maybe some sort of anthology or box-set-in-a-single-book type thing as well.

Author Websites and Profiles
Joss Sheldon Website
Joss Sheldon Amazon Profile
Joss Sheldon Author Profile on Smashwords

Joss Sheldon’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Paul Amess 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a Yorkshireman through and through, and after travelling to various wonderful and exotic places around the world, I have decided that the place where I live is actually one of the best spots on earth. This is how I got into walking, to experience the beauty of my own backyard at first hand. That this then turned morphed into a book was almost a natural process.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
54 Degrees North was released in August 2020. I had done a couple of long-distance walks but wanted something close at hand but found nothing that inspired me. Alfred Wainwright, who of course devised the official Coast to Coast, always said that you should go your own way, so you could say that I was inspired by the great man himself.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
That’s an interesting question. In a word, yes. I have young children at home so often find it difficult to write there and tend to go to my old university to use their cafes and other facilities. They must be wondering why I seem to have been studying there for so long and when and if I’m ever going to leave!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I would say authors such as Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams are the authors I grew up with, and I think their dry humour has rubbed off on me which I try to inject into my writing. I am also a big fan of Bill Bryson and always make sure I grab his new releases as soon as they are out.

What are you working on now?
I’ve just completed another walk along the Cleveland Way, which follows the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, and wrote about it as I went along. I found some fascinating things along the way, including a secret laboratory 3000 feet underground where someone is building something called a low-pressure negative ion time projection chamber, which is obviously a time machine even though they say it isn’t. I’m hoping to have it published before Christmas.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That’s a toughie. I’m quite new to this, but I have to say how impressed I am with the awesome gang. The whole process was easy from start to finish and took a surprisingly short time to do.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just go for it. They say that we all have a book within is, and I have always felt that I had one in me. Now that I have completed my first one, I feel that I have lots of books in me, and wished I had started earlier. So I would have to say my one piece of advice is to just go for it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
One of my university lecturers gave me the best piece of advice that I had ever heard, and although it wasn’t strictly related to writing, it actually relates to anything. He said that if you want to change the world you should start with yourself, which I found quite profound.

What are you reading now?
I’ve just started The Body, by Bill Bryson. My mum bought me it for Christmas but I just haven’t had time to read it, but I am making an effort to read a few pages each evening. To be honest, it isn’t much of an effort as it is very easy reading.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have a couple of ideas but I’m not sure which one to take up. I’m going to finish my book about the Cleveland Way and then try something completely different. One of them is a bit close to the bone, though. My son was ill for a very long time and I know there is an amazing story to tell there, but I’m not sure if it is just too soon. We’ll see.

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?
Ha Ha! Well, The Body, of course, because I have just started it and I would like to finish it. Other than that, Bram Stokers’ Dracula would be essential, as I read it a long time ago but would enjoy the luxury of being able to read it again. Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 would definitely be in my bag, as it is one of the funniest books I ever read, and finally, assuming we are going to be on this island for quite some time, I reckon J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, which I could read again and again.

Author Websites and Profiles
Paul Amess Amazon Profile

Paul Amess’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Oussama Berrahal 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Prior to North of Hell i have written 7 books that i have never published because i haven’t been convinced of their quality. They were not good enough and did not add anything of value to any potential reader. And since a writers mission is not only to make people think but also offer perspective, i believe that my only published book has the potential to stand up to those standards.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book ” North of Hell” was inspired by a woman. I was in a casual professional meeting, in a coffee house in Casablanca, Morocco. And the character of the book named “K” ,as she wanted to stay anonymous, eavesdropped on our conversation and joined it. We happened to have a mutual friend so we met again and she told me her story. I, then, decided to make it a novel, with her permission of course, and here we are today. Never underestimate the power of DOING things and then figuring out what to do with them.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know what could be considered unusual, as every artist has his own quirks and habits. I like to write in a very short window, right between starting to feel sleepy and actually sleeping. I would do that every day throughout the writing process, because i believe that sleep is the thing that brings your subconscious on the surface and that that’s a great way to leverage that power. I do the same for painting or for my creative consulting work. So i would write every day for 30-45 minutes and then review and correct first thing in the morning until my work is finished.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Charles Bukowski was a big influence for me, i loved his raw style and honest critic of himself and of others. Dostoievsky is a big one for me as well, because of the genius with which he can balance holistic writing and detailed naration. Dr. Jordan.B.Peterson, stands above everyone else, because he not only is an influence as an author but also a role model and father figure, if by some miracle he reads this, i thank you from the bottom of my heart.

What are you working on now?
Letting the idea of writing a second novel roam in my mind until i come up with anything of substance.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesome Gang is my first experience in promoting any book. I love their process so far, let’s see how that goes ..

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If anybody can convince you to stop writing, just stop writing. Being an author is not only a “Job” or “Activity”, it’s a state of being. Like no one can ever convince you to stop breathing or walking, no one should be able to convince you to stop writing if you’re an Author. Just write …

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Better be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener at war” Dr. Jordan.B. Peterson

What are you reading now?
The Godfather by Mario Puzo

What’s next for you as a writer?
I don’t know but i can’t wait to know.

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?
Beyond good and evil by Friedrich Nietzche
Women by Charles Bukowski
The brothers Karamazov by Fiodor Dostoievsky

Author Websites and Profiles
Oussama Berrahal Amazon Profile

Amanda Uhl 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an award-winning author of two previous books, Mind Waves, the first book in the Mind Hackers series, released in 2016 by The Wild Rose Press, and Charmed By Charlie, released in 2017 by Boroughs Publishing Group. The second book in the Mind Hackers series, Cross Waves, is currently up for preorder (special ebook price of $2.99 on Amazon until its release) and comes out Oct. 19. Last year, I wrote a contemporary rom-com that finaled and won it’s category in the Stiletto contest. You can see more about all the awards my books have received here: https://amandauhl.com/awards-honors/.

I am drawn to the paranormal, because I am a bit paranormal myself. I was born at home in a 150-year-old house that is rumored to be haunted. I had several ghostly experiences myself while growing up. As I got older, I discovered I had the knack for predicting the future and telling people about themselves —whether through dreams, palm-reading, hand-writing analysis, Tarot readings, and even hypnosis (which happened quite by accident)! I call this my “hidden” talent because I don’t get paid (I have a full time corporate job) and I don’t do it on a regular basis. Because I’ve had numerous bizarre, real-life experiences, I am able to channel these incidents into my paranormal books, which are set in contemporary times. Readers often ask me if the world I have created is real.

When I’m not reading or writing, my two favorite pastimes are searching for beach glass (I have quite a collection) on the Lake Erie shoreline and riding my bicycle through the beautiful Cuyahoga Valley National Park with my husband and three children. I hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre, which has come in handy as I record my own audiobooks, and a Masters in Marketing.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, Cross Waves, is part of a paranormal romance series called Mind Hackers. The contemporary fantasy world the book is set in was inspired in large part by my day job, where I manage communications and training in a cyber security department for a large corporation (I have since moved onto the data area. Not quite sure that will inspire anything:) Cross Waves took four years to write and publish and just received it’s first review from Reader’s Favorite and it’s five stars. The reviewer said “…. a fascinating and irresistible paranormal romance. From the beginning, the conflict between Geneva and Rolf held me spellbound, and I couldn’t put the book down until I found out how their dilemma was resolved.” https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/cross-waves. I worked hard to keep the reader guessing with this book and hope they enjoy it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I work strictly from my iPad and don’t own a laptop. I like the ease and convenience and I take it with me everywhere. Because I have a challenging day job, I need to use every spare minute to write. The tablet gives me that convenience.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
There are so many authors I have read and enjoyed through the years. I started out as a pre-teen reading historical fiction by Georgette Heyer, Marion Chesney and Mary Balough. As my “psychic talents” developed so did my interest in the paranormal and I became a BIG fan of Jayne Ann Krentz, especially her futuristic romances written under the pen name, Jayne Castle. I also enjoy Christine Feehan’s dark vampire romances. I’m happy to say I’ve gotten the chance to meet and talk to both of these authors in the last couple of years.

On the lighter side, I love Sophie Kinsella, especially her attempt at writing a light-hearted paranormal called “Twenties Girl.” I hope they turn that one into a movie.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a new paranormal series called “Healing Kiss.” I have completed the synopsis and will start writing the story shortly. Here’s the blurb:

To save her dying sister…
Lillian Milano has an extraordinary ability. She channels energy from the powerful to heal the sick. But her gift puts Lillian and those she loves in danger from an organization that will stop at nothing to experiment on her. When her sister Hannah becomes dangerously ill, Lillian discovers the one person with enough vitality to save her sister’s life is computer genius and billionaire Tristan King. But being near him threatens to destroy the walls she’s built around her heart.

She strikes a bargain with a billionaire.
Tristan doesn’t believe in the supernatural or in Lillian’s gift. He doesn’t trust easily and is wary of emotional entanglements with the opposite sex. But his mother’s autoimmune disease is slowly killing her, and he’s tried everything to find a cure, even channeling his money into experimental drug companies. Maybe something Lillian does can help? Fine, he’ll play her game. He’s not heartless. But as the pair work together, they soon find out the stakes are much higher than either Lillian or Tristan anticipated. So high, the choices they make will either destroy their lives or heal their hearts.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The best tools for promoting my book have been my newsletter and my author Facebook page. I also run a private Facebook group called Amanda’s A Team, where active readers can get access to inside news and giveaways and help promote my books.

Newsletter —> https://amandauhl.com/social-media/
Facebook Author Page —> https://www.facebook.com/amandauhlauthor
Amanda’s A Team —> https://www.facebook.com/groups/1968453683426411

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t give up! Creativity takes courage, and publishing a book is not for the weak. There is a lot of competition for reader’s attention. Like running a marathon, you need to practice and train and continue to hone your skills. Join a writers group, make friends of other writers, find a critique parter, enter your work in contests, incorporate feedback, and above all, keep writing, In the end its not about the prize, it’s about the journey.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Stephen King offers great advice in his book, “On Writing.” He says if you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. He also says you have to keep writing even when you don’t feel like it. And you must overcome self-doubt, which plagues all artists. Says King, “If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that’s all.”

What are you reading now?
I am reading Jane Austen’s “Persuasion,” which I can’t believe I’ve never read before. It’s fantastic. I’m also reading a Chicken Soup for the Soul book called, “Listen to Your Dreams.”

What’s next for you as a writer?
I signed with a literary agent in January and am looking forward to exciting new ventures.

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?
Hmmm…just three or four? Oh, boy. I’d have to take the Bible, and some classics like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables.”

Author Websites and Profiles
Amanda Uhl Website
Amanda Uhl Amazon Profile

Amanda Uhl’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tracy Yount 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am 45 years old I have written 4 books two are on amazon.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Journey of the heart” and “Journey of the mind”. I wrote them for my mom who was my best friend.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I go through spurts,I guess you could say I will go into a zone and not come out till I reach the end, my last spurt lasted five days straight

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh so many. caroline keene, franklin w. Dixon,Karen slaughter

What are you working on now?
My next two books are ” choices of the heart” and “Choices of the mind”

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I generally go through amazon

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Go with your heart.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Same as advice I would give.

What are you reading now?
About ten different ones

What’s next for you as a writer?
Not sure yet.

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 Nancy drew

Author Websites and Profiles
Tracy Yount Website

Deiri Di 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a tech geek and new mom with an avid love of video games, chocolate, and new technological advancements. A few months ago a close family relative was diagnosed with stage four cancer and a few days ago she died. Throughout the process of her transition, I realized that I didn’t want to be on my deathbed with a google drive filled with unpublished work, so I went full YOLO.

In the last three weeks I’ve written and published six salacious novelettes as Deiri Di and have been getting my less adult science fiction novels up under a different pen name.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Communilingus.

Communication is so essential to us as a species. It is the driving force behind our evolutionary success as well as our own personal failures. We succeed when we communicate well. For a healthy and robust romantic life, we need good communication as well as… other skills.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to launch a video game on my additional monitor that essentially plays itself while I write. Occasionally I’ll switch over and make slight adjustments, but it make me giggle to have the little characters running around playing themselves while I work on creating new worlds. I usually create new characters for each of the books hero/heroines and have them running around as I write about them.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My writing influences are drastically different than the racy content that I write.

Issac Asimov was one of my early reads as a child and his I,Robot series of stories left a strong mark on my brain. Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game is another. Mercedes Lacky with her Mage series made me cry and gave me my first exposure to love outside of the gender normative structure. Anne McCaffrey’s Pern, Ship, and Rowan series were more favorites.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on two things.

As Deiri Di I am working on the next novelette in the Cryo Crisis romance series. It’s called Raptimax (Rapture+Climax) and is about a competitive gymnast who in a moment of adrenaline fueled passion, finds herself entangled with an alien in a drop suit closet. The character Sierra has made an appearance in the other books as an antagonist and I wanted to provide her perspective and give her a chance to show herself for who she truly is.

Under my other less naughty pen name, Siobhan Shiva, I’ve just published my first dystopian science fiction novel. It is called Every Nowhere and should be out on amazon in a few days. With that pen name I’m also working on a new LitRPG, but that will take a lot longer than any of the works in my Cryo Crisis universe. It requires a lot more math and a lot less quick and steamy fun.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Keywords!

I’ve barely done anything to promote my work so far other than careful use of keywords. Readers who are looking for steamy work are finding my stuff. This author interview is one of the first actual promotion efforts I’ve done.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do your research.

Look at your genre before you publish and take the time to research keywords that will bring the readers that you’re looking for. Never stop learning.

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

Stop thinking about it and do it. If you fail you learn. If you succeed, you also learn.

Do it.

What are you reading now?
A LitRPG about a soldier that is put into a monster’s body.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to keep writing.

A lot.

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?
An army survival manual, a book on boat building, and a book on edible plants and animals for that area. I read far too quickly to be satiated without wifi.

Being stranded on a desert island by yourself sounds miserable. Now, throw in a marooned hottie who is determined to woo me while working with me to save us both – yes please, more please.

Author Websites and Profiles
Deiri Di Website
Deiri Di Amazon Profile

Douglas Wood 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
LADIES OF THE CANYON, a psychological thriller, is my first novel, published last week by Prospective Press. It’s about the dark side of Hollywood where I live and work, centering on the twisted relationship between an aging child star and the young actress she takes in to her decaying mansion. Here’s my short bio: Douglas Wood writes, creates and produces children’s television for Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, NBC, Amazon, BBC, Netflix and Apple. The PBS series, Molly of Denali, for which Wood was Story Editor received a Peabody award. Wood has also been a film executive for Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment as well as several major Hollywood studios. He began his career in entertainment as an actor in Chicago where he appeared at Steppenwolf and the Goodman Theatre. He was a member of the Second City National Touring Company and the Fine Line comedy duo, which appeared at the Comedy Store, The Improv and The Motown Revue with Smokey Robinson, an NBC series for which Wood was also a writer. He lives in Topanga Canyon in the Santa Monica mountains outside Los Angeles with his wife and two cats.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
LADIES OF THE CANYON was inspired mostly by the film, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? but also by SUNSET BLVD. and the novel and film, DAY OF THE LOCUST. I find psychological horror much scarier than traditional supernatural novels.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have a spectacular view of the mountains from my office window, but I keep the blinds drawn so as not to distract me. And of course, sometimes I have to come up with clever means to reach my keyboard because one or both of my cats feel like they have something to contribute.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Joyce Carol Oates, George Saunders and Ian McEwan are three of my favorite authors and have influenced my writing.

What are you working on now?
A novel set in the world of antiques, collecting, garage sales and flea markets– it’s an interesting subculture that no one has really explored yet.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Goodreads. And my website: https://writewoodink.com/novel.html.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write something you’re passionate about as opposed to what you think might sell. Writing is a long process and you have to make sure you look forward to spending long days with your characters and their world.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Writing is rewriting.

What are you reading now?
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. It’s funny, disturbing and incredibly well-written and

What’s next for you as a writer?
See “what are you working on 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?
Collected works of Edgar Allan Poe, the reviews of Pauline Kael, and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Author Websites and Profiles
Douglas Wood Website
Douglas Wood Amazon Profile

Douglas Wood’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile

Douglas Wood 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
LADIES OF THE CANYON, a psychological thriller, is my first novel, published last week by Prospective Press. It’s about the dark side of Hollywood where I live and work, centering on the twisted relationship between an aging child star and the young actress she takes in to her decaying mansion. Here’s my short bio: Douglas Wood writes, creates and produces children’s television for Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, NBC, Amazon, BBC, Netflix and Apple. The PBS series, Molly of Denali, for which Wood was Story Editor received a Peabody award. Wood has also been a film executive for Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment as well as several major Hollywood studios. He began his career in entertainment as an actor in Chicago where he appeared at Steppenwolf and the Goodman Theatre. He was a member of the Second City National Touring Company and the Fine Line comedy duo, which appeared at the Comedy Store, The Improv and The Motown Revue with Smokey Robinson, an NBC series for which Wood was also a writer. He lives in Topanga Canyon in the Santa Monica mountains outside Los Angeles with his wife and two cats.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
LADIES OF THE CANYON was inspired mostly by the film, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? but also by SUNSET BLVD. and the novel and film, DAY OF THE LOCUST. I find psychological horror much scarier than traditional supernatural novels.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have a spectacular view of the mountains from my office window, but I keep the blinds drawn so as not to distract me. And of course, sometimes I have to come up with clever means to reach my keyboard because one or both of my cats feel like they have something to contribute.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Joyce Carol Oates, George Saunders and Ian McEwan are three of my favorite authors and have influenced my writing.

What are you working on now?
A novel set in the world of antiques, collecting, garage sales and flea markets– it’s an interesting subculture that no one has really explored yet.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Goodreads. And my website: https://writewoodink.com/novel.html.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write something you’re passionate about as opposed to what you think might sell. Writing is a long process and you have to make sure you look forward to spending long days with your characters and their world.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Writing is rewriting.

What are you reading now?
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. It’s funny, disturbing and incredibly well-written and

What’s next for you as a writer?
See “what are you working on 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?
Collected works of Edgar Allan Poe, the reviews of Pauline Kael, and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Author Websites and Profiles
Douglas Wood Website
Douglas Wood Amazon Profile

Douglas Wood’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile

Kathleen Ryder 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
A romantic at heart, I write sexy and heart-warming contemporary romance, featuring thought provoking plots and strong main characters that are relatable and recognizable to modern day women.

I draw on personal experience of the settings depicted in my novels, to provide a more authentic experience for my readers.

My romantic sub-genres include Medical Romance with flying doctors, sassy nurses, and brooding surgeons; Magical Realism featuring witches, gypsies, and supernatural detectives; Modern Romance showcasing secret billionaires, and sexy rockstars; Paranormal Romance with vampires, and ghosts; and Romantic Elements wrapped up in women’s literature and humor.

I am a proud mother and foster mother. I have also been, among other things, a circus performer, portrait photographer, primary school teacher, cake artist, nanny, tour guide, and wedding and event planner.

My goals in life are simply to finish raising happy, imaginative, and inquisitive children; to make a real and tangible difference in the lives of others; and to keep writing novels for as long as I possibly can.

I make my home in the isolated desert, surrounded by red dirt, striking mountain ranges, and endless clear blue skies. It is this stunning landscape that features as backdrop for many of my novels.

When I am not writing, you can find me hanging out with my boys, reading, or planning my next adventure!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My books are always inspired by the same thing: stories that I want to read. Romances that I would like to experience, in settings that I can relate to as a modern woman.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not unusual exactly, but two things that I always do when writing is make a playlist of songs that will fuel the emotions of my characters, and have lengthy (in my head) conversations with my characters.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Milly Johnson is my favourite author, hands down. I will read any of her books time and time again, and pre-order them without needing to read a blurb first. She makes you feel good and reading her is like having a nice long chat with a dear friend.

What are you working on now?
I am simultaneously working on a first book in a new series, featuring rockstars; the second book in my Outback Doctors series; and a feel good chick lit novel featuring an Indigenous Australian.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Mostly, I rely on my own author website and social media pages.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Find your voice, don’t ever let someone talk you into changing. Your voice is what makes you unique. Yes, there will be those that do not like it, but there will those that do. Stay true to you and you will find your loyal readers.

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

What are you reading now?
Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have releases due out every month for the next twelve months, after that, more 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?
Goddess of Spring by PC Cast.
The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss.
The Birds and The Bees by Milly Johnson.

Author Websites and Profiles
Kathleen Ryder Website
Kathleen Ryder Amazon Profile

Kathleen Ryder’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Hank Quense 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in northern New Jersey with my wife. We have two daughters and five grandchildren. All of them live in neighboring towns,

I’ve been writing fiction for over 20 years ad I’ve been self-publishing for over 10 years. I write sci-fi and fantasy fiction but only satiric or humorous stores. Nothing serious. I believe there is too much serious genre fiction being written and I’m trying to rectify that situation.
I also write non-fiction books about fiction writing, self-publishing and book marketing. In addition,I lecture on those topics in schools, libraries and on webinars

Currently, I have 22 books on Amazon, both fiction and non-fiction

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The title is Book Marketing Fundamentals. It was inspired by my previous book, How to Self-publish and Market a Book. What happened was this: after that book was published, I realized there are authors who have a published book, but are looking for marketing help, hence the new book.
The self-publishing book was inspired by the writing groups I belong to. In them, I noticed how inexperienced writers struggle to understand the publishing process. That inevitably leads to website searches and the internet is loaded with scam artists looking for these inexperienced authors. My books are designed to educate those writers and hopefully to alert them and protect them from the scam artists

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I love mind-maps. I have a half-dozen software programs and I’ll make a new mind-map for almost every problem I come across. I also mind-map my novels before I start to write the first draft. I create three mind-maps: one for the characters and one for the plots. The third can be described as a graphical synopsis. I’ve learned that if I can make the third mind-map, I understand the story well enough to write it.
I mind-map non-fiction books also, starting with the table of contents complete with sub-headings. I manipulate these items to ensure the contents present a compelling and understandable presentation. Why? Because it’s a lot easier to move idea bubbles around than it is to manipulate the written sections and sub-sections.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My fiction has been strongly influenced by the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and by Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Happily, I’ve never recovered from the experiences of reading those two books.

What are you working on now?
Currently, I’m developing Book Marketing Fundamentals into a series of videos that will ultimately become a class on the Udemy site. I’m also working on developing a workshop based on How to Self-publish and Market a Book. It’s scheduled to be initially given on the Savvy Authors site in December.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think getting book reviews are the best marketing tactic I’ve come across.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
For fiction writers, my advice is to know the ending before starting to write the first draft. My reasoning is this: everything in the story must move the reader closer to the climax. Therefore, you can’t move the reader toward the climax if you don’t know where or what the climax is.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write scenes, not words. I don’t use a word goal such as wiring a thousand words a day or twenty-five hundred or whatever. When writing the first draft, my goal is to write one scene a day and I don’t care how many words it is.

What are you reading now?
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
The Undercover Goddess by my friend and fellow author Karen Cavalli

What’s next for you as a writer?
I haven’t decided whether I’ll write another non-fiction book (Mind-mapping a Book) or a sci-fi novel or a few short stories. Whatever it turns out to be, I won’t start it until sometime next 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?
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Catch-22, Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore and anything by Bernard Cornwell.

Author Websites and Profiles
Hank Quense Website
Hank Quense Amazon Profile
Hank Quense Author Profile on Smashwords

Hank Quense’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Brandon Barrows 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My latest novel, BURN ME OUT, is my second published novel and my fourth published book-length prose work. My previous novel, THIS ROUGH OLD WORLD, was published in 2017. I’ve also published the story collections THE ALTAR IN THE HILLS (2014) and THE CASTLE-TOWN TRAGEDY (2016).

Besides prose, I’ve been writing comic books for many years, and have written roughly one-hundred individual, published comics.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
BURN ME OUT is a crime novel that was inspired n large part, about things I’ve been dealing with over the last few years: desperation, depression, hiding the most significant part of yourself from everyone (especially those you love because hurting them is the last thing on earth you want) and a deep, aching desire to matter and be recognized for it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have set writing days and I write as much as I feel is necessary on those days. I used to have set times every day I’d write but I found it was actually detrimental to the process because I was forcing myself many of those days. Now, I have set days where I may work for six or seven hours straight and then I don’t write for four days in a row. It gives me some distance from what I’ve written so I can reevaluate it with fresh eyes and it gives the ideas time to germinate in my imagation.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
That answer will change over time, of course, but for the last six or seven years, at least, it’s been Gil Brewer. The majority of his career is largely compacted into less than a decade, but he was of the first generation of paperback original authors and an absolute giant of noir. From 1951 to 1960, he wrote about thirty novels and hundreds of short stories, and they cover just about every aspect of crime and mystery fiction that I love. His characters struggle with themselves and the problems they’ve (usually) created for themselves and they rarely have happy endings, but even knowing they’re doomed, they don’t give up or give in. They’re not good people, usually, but they’re very human. That’s something I tried very hard to do with BURN ME OUT.

What are you working on now?
I just finished the first draft of a western novel. I’ve written close to a dozen western stories published in various magazines, but this is my first full-fledged western novel.

I am also shopping two crime novels I’ve finished in the last year, looking for publishers.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Twitter and Facebook are my go-tos. There are plenty of folks who are happy to share things that look interesting with their friends and acquaintances. The trick is to make them want to share.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read – a lot. I’ve talked to many people who say they want to write, but claim they don’t really like to read. I don’t know how they expect that to work. You can’t be a writer and not love the written word. Exposing yourself to many different people’s ideas and styles will not only give you inspiration, it’ll give you an idea of what works and what doesn’t – both for you, and in general. I’ve read books that had great ideas, but poor execution, and I’ve read books that were excellently written but the idea was boring or perhaps simply not for me personally. Learning what works for you as a reader is a critical part of discovering what kind of writer you want to, and can, become

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Just write. It doesn’t matter how good or bad the first draft is. The first draft is just you telling the story to yourself. It’s not set in stone and you can always change anything you like after that first draft is done.

What are you reading now?
Tragg’s Choice, a novel by Clifton Adams about a man who became a legend in his own lifetime and finds he isn’t a big enough person to live up to his own legend.

What’s next for you as a writer?
A long round of editing on the western novel (laughs).

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Oh, gosh. That’s a tough one.

I’d bring Eiji Yoshikawa’s MUSASHI, as it’s one of the best historical novels I’ve ever read. I’d also bring Gil Brewer’s THE VENGEFUL VIRGIN, Harry Whittington’s A MOMENT TO PREY, and the first volume of the collected short works of Louis L’Amour.

Author Websites and Profiles
Brandon Barrows Website
Brandon Barrows Amazon Profile

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