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Margaret Dempsey 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a millennial business professional, working in Supply Chain Management in the Consumer Products industry. I love my job, and I love my side hustles, including writing! I have published one memoir, which consists of travel memoirs and ramblings from the first 30 years of my life. I also co-authored a Children’s book with my family members, using our experience as a busy family to spread messaging on how to stay connected in the midst of chaotic schedules.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
If You Love Me, Come Find Me. This memoir was inspired by my love for writing, and my fervent need to write in order to release my soul. I have always been called to writing, as if words had an urgency to move from my fingers onto paper. As I set out to find out who I truly was, at the age of 16 I made a risky decision to travel to Europe with a school group. The magic and awe I experienced there boiled over in me. The only way I knew to capture my growth and experience was to bleed my story onto paper. I continued this habit through my twenties, taking a solo trip every year from the age of 24 until 30. My wonder and awe of the world, the magic it has shown me, and my love for comedy make this read endlessly entertaining and fun for me every time I reread it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
For some reason, I love to write in the silence of a library. Perhaps it makes me feel closer to my craft, being surrounded so vastly by words of all genres. There is an inherent coziness to a library, at least for us book nerds, and being amongst the genius in that setting is inspiring!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Franz Kafka, J.K. Rowling, Kristin Hannah.

What are you working on now?
I am working on my first full-fledged fiction novel, genre and title to be revealed!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I went the self-publishing route with my first memoir, due to the objective of my project. My book was a labor of love, and of sharing my story with my loved ones.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write every day. Write when it feels great, when it hurts, and when you don’t feel anything. Remember, in order to have experiences to write about, you have to go out and live life fully.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Fake it until you make it.

What are you reading now?
Station Eleven (for the second time)

What’s next for you as a writer?
Working on a full fiction novel.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Night Circus
The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
The Jungle Book

 

Thomas Farrell 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a retired NYC professional stage manager with a career that saw forty-five plays and musicals produced on the New York Stage. My wife is a retired NBCT public school teacher. This is our first published book with three others in the wings. We have written two screenplays, three plays (one of which won a national screenwriting contest in 2003) and approximately seventy skits and puppet productions produced on the East Cost and the Midwest.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Allison and the Trail Less Traveled” is our current book. It was originally written and produced as a musical for children titled “The Trail Less Traveled” in 2004 and a full-cast radio broadcast the following year. The story has always been dear to our hearts and we finally decided to expand the story in book form and published it in November of 2020.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
We try to start by mid-morning, but the process is like hand-cranking a 1922 Ford Model T Touring Car. Once we get going, the hours fly by and we have a difficult time stopping.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Clive Cussler, Neil Simon, William Goldman

What are you working on now?
Two other stories in The Trail Less Traveled Adventures series. The first due on May 15, 2021 Tit titled, “MADELINE AND THE CHASE FOR THE MORNING STAR.” The other story is due November 1st, 2021 and is titled, “MEREDITH AND THE LAST NOEL.” A third in the development stage has a draft title of “ANNA AND THE SEARCH FOR THE RUSTPROOF TREASURE.”

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Self Publishing with Dale has links to many different publishing topics. It is how we found Awesome Gang.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
In the words of Winston Churchill, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.” My advice… Keep at it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Never have a “plan-b”.

What are you reading now?
Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” in the original 1843 text.

What’s next for you as a writer?
After the “Trail” books next year we have three other book story ideas geared for adults.

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 Way” (a paraphrased Bible)… “The U.S. Navy Seal Survival Handbook”… “The Groucho Letters” by Groucho Marx… “2001: A Space Odyssey” by Arthur C. Clark.

 

Thomas Farrell’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Peter Bach 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m on number 13, but this is the first published, Book Zero. The next one is Wisper, slated to publish on April 1, 2021. For now, the plan is one every three months in the EF series of Books. All thirteen are on second draft. Wisper is on final draft. Wonder, Krinyanna, Billy Moonshadow, and Elf Child, are at 4th draft. I use a 5 draft process. The books go to Beta reads after the fourth draft. People should hit me up if they want to beta read. Booksofef@gmail.com

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Book Zero is what Martin Druid called his survival guide given to the little plant people he created by using CRISPER on a Bonsai tree. The book was inspired by fusing Anunnaki studies with Hopi Indian myths, and then straining the plot through a Philip K. Dick lens of approach.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I hope not, but I am writing all the time. Not all of it gets into the books. Orwellian pros, ala Sanderson classes on line, but since youth I wrote short stories. These would become structure to run D&D campaigns. Later I wrote business plans – some of the best fiction writing possible. The EF concept came up about 15 years ago out of those what if humans vanished shows, postulating what happens to the planet.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Everything I read, and everything I am going to read. To a measure, we are all writing fan fiction. Perhaps the only totally original thing I’ve come up with is the plant people being used as growth medium for brewers yeast by the Mewlmammy Brewing Company. That’s in the third book, Wonder. The quick answer is Tolkien, McCaffrey, Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Zelazny, Le’Guin, Martin, Sanderson, Dick, Jordan, and Fitzgerald.

What are you working on now?
Wisper tells a tale of humanity’s mutations becoming magical; it follows the Wisper family’s rise to empire and fall to obscurity, culminating in the arrival of Maro Sunday, the fifteen-year-old girl from a Sisters of Mercy breeding program who takes down their dynasty.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This is the first book. I’m trying many. In a few months I may learn something.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Like all learning, you have to do it and fail. It takes 10,000 hours to master anything. Enjoy the journey, be honest to yourself, and celebrate even the smallest gains. My web site might say it best.
“Writing is easy, getting read is hard.”
– any Author

“Books are easy, getting published is hard.”
– any Agent

“Publishing is easy, getting a book sold is hard.”
– any Publisher

“Selling a book is easy, getting customers is hard.”
– any Book Seller

“Buying a book is easy, reading is hard.”
– any Reader

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Gratitude is the best emotion

What are you reading now?
Cara Niedenbach’s new novel.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Two and a half years of making this series an excellent escape with witty and poignant humor, smattered with adventure and character arcs which leave readers satisfied. That’s the goal.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Gödel Escher Bach, A confederacy of Dunces, The left Hand of Darkness, Book Zero.

Author Websites and Profiles
Peter Bach Website
Peter Bach Amazon Profile

Steven Simon 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Outside of my family, I have two loves: writing and grappling. I’ve written two novels and one book of poetry.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is “Into the Fracking Fields.” I wanted to build a world that had both the familiar and the dystopian. As we saw with the COVID-19 pandemic, we can have a huge disruption in the world and still maintain some normalcy. This book delves into our sense of normalcy and what we would consider to be dystopian – might very well by utopian.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I sit on a board of nails to keep my writing sharp. Not really. Music and coffee are usual involved.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Huxley, Tom Robbins, Steinbeck, and to a lesser extent, Kerouac. “Blindness,” by Saramago, has always stuck with me. Bukowski for poetry.

What are you working on now?
A novel based on based on my experiences as a Jew surrounded by evangelical Christians.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t stop.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“If you see a sign that says ‘do not feed the bears,’ man, you’d better not feed the bears.” -Homer Simpson

What are you reading now?
1Q84, by Murakami

What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing that ol’ novel I mentioned above.

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?
Of Mice and Men and the rest Calvin and Hobbes.

Author Websites and Profiles
Steven Simon Website
Steven Simon Amazon Profile

Steven Simon’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Daniel Rosenthal 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I remember clearly I met extraterrestrials when I was a small child, firstly when I was 2 years old, then when I was 4 years old. And they are quite different from anything you know of, recently I wrote about 8 books, about several subjects. And it includes a scientific theory about consciousness, which needs to be improved.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
This years I wrote “spirits in the skies” and “Goblins.”
They are on Amazon, as ebooks and paperback.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Some of my books were written as from an unusual viewpoint, that of a flying saucer.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
None, or HP Lovecraft

What are you working on now?
A book about UFOs

Do you have any advice for new authors?
kdp Amazon is very good, and easy to use.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I wish people would write a good review or rating my book

Author Websites and Profiles
Daniel Rosenthal Amazon Profile

Susan Kummernes 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a ‘mature’ woman, single but with a life-partner. Geoff came into my life when I began to write my novel and addressed all of my technical needs, and helped me research the fine points of military information. I have 3 adult children and 4 wonderful grand-children and spend my retired day’s painting (oil & watercolor), photography, and soon gardening. I have only written this single novel. It wasn’t a ‘desire’ to write a novel, but a ‘calling’ to write THIS novel in remembrance of someone I loved many, many decades ago.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Come Now The Angels – Five Marines in Vietnam: A Woman’s Story of War, Death, Love & Hope.
I lost someone close to me in the Vietnam War. Every time I visited Washington, D.C. to see old friends, I always stopped at Arlington National Cemetary to visit his grave. Shortly after a visit 12-years ago, strange things began to happen in my life, all related to Vietnam. I felt as if the universe was calling me to do something. I finally realized that my friend and all Vietnam Veterans wanted to be remembered. I began researching and after 2-years, was ready to begin writing. The world opened itself to me and assisted me. The most important assist was my partner, Geoff. He was recently divorced, living alone, and had reached out on a dating site looking for a ‘friend.’ I had been on the site unsuccessfully for a year or so, and logged in to discontinue my membership when I saw his post. We emailed for awhile, and in one of those emails, I asked him if he knew what “ROE” meant in the military. He replied with a single-spaced, one page definition of the “Rules of Engagement” and a discussion of its application. Geoff is a retired, U.S. Navy submariner. He has an extensive knowledge of the Vietnam war, the equipment and tactics used. He was a gift to me, and we discovered we had a lot in common. Geoff & I are now partners and he assisted my in writing this novel. ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF THIS BOOK ARE BEING DONATED TO THE VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA, ORGANIZATION. BUY THIS BOOK AND YOU WILL MAKE A DONATION!!!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can focus on a writing task for hours at a time. It’s not unusual for me to write non-stop for hours, and hours, breaking only for a quick snack before I’m back at it. Many times during this novel, Geoff would come to where I was writing at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning and drag me off to bed. I keep copious notes, and reference materials, and immerse myself in this project so that I clearly understand all I can about the subject.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I literally have boxes of research materials. Books, Movies, Documentaries, related to Vietnam, the United States from the 1950’s to post-Hurricane Katrina 2006. I have listed the most influential in the “Resources” section of my book. It’s an impressive list of ‘who’s who’ with regard to history during this period.

What are you working on now?
I’m taking some online oil painting classes dealing with rocks.
Geoff and I took at least 3-weeks off after this book was complete. It was our first effort to write, edit, publish, and sell this book. We did it ourselves, and researched a LOT of sourvces to determine the best way to do it. We were exhausted. The CoVid-19 self-isolation we put ourselves in helped us focus on the book.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
We’re new to this, but read a LOT, and attended many online webinars related to all things about writing, publishing, editing, marketing. We used a combination of items at our disposal, best-practice of others, and shear force to move this book out to the marketplace. During the research period, I spoke with may Vietnam Combat Marines. They provided a lot of information, and were my beta-readers. They were all very impressed with my final result and promoted the book to their friends, and families.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you plan to self-publish – be ready for a task that is very different from writing your novel. Get ready for disappointment from agents and publishers. There are a LOT of great authors out there, and while you may one of them, you will need to work VERY hard to get your name and your work above the rest. Do not become disappointed. There is NOTHING like opening a box from a printer and seeing your work before you. YOUR BOOK!!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
WIth regard to writing a novel: “Everyone is out to feed their families and make money. It’s a business based on simple economics. Don’t take it personally.”

What are you reading now?
My book. After 12-years of work, I want to sit down in my chair with a glass of wine and read about the people that were a large part of my life. It’s also time for me to come full-circle and grieve for the loss of my close friend, and realize that potential that is lost with every death in war .. the person that died, their family, friends. It’s all a ripple effect.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Nothing related to writing. I was called to write this book and it was exhausting. I had never written anything like this before. I knew nothing about writing a novel, and the plot of this story grew as I wrote. It became almost unmanageable in scope.

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 – regardless of your beliefs, there are good lessons about love, compassion, and understanding.

Understanding Herbs and Natural Medicine

How to build something from nothing

My book – because no matter how bad it gets, there are those that had it worse, and survived.

Author Websites and Profiles
Susan Kummernes Website
Susan Kummernes Amazon Profile

Susan Kummernes’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Anna Dizmang-Jones 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Im a 17 year old self published romance author from alton Illinois. I’ve wrote and published 1 book and I’m in the process of writing the second

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called The Wings of Fate and much like my other book ideas the idea for this one came from a dream I had. After I woke up I wrote down what I had dreamt and told myself I had to put it on paper.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t feel that I have any unusual writing habits but I love watching writing sprits on youtube and eating crackers while I write.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
The authors Jenna Moreci and Kate Cavanaugh have had a huge influence on me and finally taking the steps to publish my first book.

What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on my second book The Wings of Love which is a continuation of my first book. The two books are about a human and and angel falling in love and all the twists and turns it creates.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My best method to promoting my book is just getting it out there. Sometimes I’ll use facebook ads and groups and other times it’s calling to bookstores and having them check it out.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice to new writers is to take it slow and do your research on your genre or how to market. Just do your research.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I’ve ever heart was to outline my book. It’s not for everyone but outlining has saved me countless hours of struggling through what i should write next.

What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading Dark Fae Cursed and it has become one of my favorite books.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’d say the next step for me as a writer would be creating as many books as I can that my readers love and want to buy more of.

 

Kate Harriet 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
As an author and ghostwriter who has written over thirty books, I like to write stories set in picturesque places, for readers who like a hero or heroine they can really root for.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
A Christmas Romance with the Earl is my latest book and was inspired by meeting a minor royal when out in a nearby village years ago, as you do. He seemed strangely… ordinary.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Before I start to write, I always like to water my flowers in Animal Crossing.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jane Austen mainly but any author who likes to write feisty heroines. One of my favourite characters is also Hermione Granger, because there is nothing like a heroine who is witty and smart but can also fit an entire library inside her bag.

What are you working on now?
I’m nearing the second draft of A Spring Romance with the Earl.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have found that the best method of promotion is generally through email newsletters.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
To write the best book that you possibly can, that’s all we can ever do as writers.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Take all writing advice with a pinch of salt. Test which writing methods work best for you, keep some and throw away the rest.

What are you reading now?
Watership Down. It’s harder for a fantasy epic featuring talking rabbits to influence any of my romance story plotlines…

What’s next for you as a writer?
Finishing the next book in the A Romance with the Earl series, so that readers can find out whether Jess and the earl stay together. Or whether old flames or new suitors conspire to tear them apart.

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?
Pride and Prejudice because in spite of pressure from family and society for Elizabeth Bennet to marry, she not only sticks to her guns but also gets her HEA.
The Meeting of the Medusa by Arthur C. Clarke because it’s the ultimate battle between ‘man’ versus planet, just the sort of thing you need to read on a deserted island.
And The Tao Te Ching, as I’ve read different versions a hundred times and still cannot comprehend the mystery.

Author Websites and Profiles
Kate Harriet Website
Kate Harriet Amazon Profile

Kate Harriet’s Social Media Links
Pinterest Account

Dave Wall 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I retired from my engineering career in January 2020. Since high school, I’ve wanted to write creatively, but being a nuclear engineer didn’t let me scratch that itch professionally. After retirement, I took the plunge. I had the time and the inspiration, so I finally got to work. At first, I thought I’d be a gig-writer, making money writing for others on a contract-to-contract basis. It took me three months to decide I just did not want to do that. I wanted to write for me. In April I started my first novel and finally published it in December. I’ve written the one book, On American Soil: Jihad. It’s the first in a series I named Preserve, Protect and Defend.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
On American Soil: Jihad is my first and only book, but I plan to complete book 2 in the series by June 2021. It is an action-thriller about a terrorist attack in Norfolk, Virginia — the home of the world’s largest naval base. The many books I’ve read over the years in the genre and my desire to create fiction inspired me to write. Now, I’m fulfilling the dream I’ve had since the 11th grade.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think I have unusual writing habits. I try to maintain a set schedule every day, writing in the morning and doing other things in the afternoon. I sit at the computer and start slugging through it until I’ve met my word count goal for the day. Sometimes the story is flowing, and I can’t leave the computer. Many other times, though, I walk away from my desk and do some mindless task that needs to get done, but I’m working through the scene in my head. When I get back to the computer, the words come more easily.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Tom Clancy was the first. I loved The Hunt for Red October and read most all the other Clancy novels that came after that. More recently Sean Parnell’s Outlaw Platoon (a true story that reads like a novel), and A. M. Adair’s Shadow Game inspired me. A. M. Adair drew my attention because she’s a writer who lives in my city and started her journey like I wanted to.

What are you working on now?
I published On American Soil: Jihad on December eleventh. I’m focusing on marketing that book and taking a break for the holidays. But, come January, maybe before, I’ll start writing book 2 of the Preserve, Protect and Defend series. I’ve been writing scenes in my head and taking notes, so it’s ready to come out. I have tentatively titled it On American Soil: Anarchy.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m too new at this to know the answer. So far, I’ve updated my LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter profiles to include an image of my book and a link to my website, and a universal book link to click if someone wants to buy it. I also blasted friends and family with an email announcing the book. That has gotten a pretty good response, but I know that is just a temporary bump. So, I’m exploring websites like Awesome Gang.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
The best advice I took was to hire a professional designer to create my book cover. I think it’s awesome, and when I can get the image in front of people, I think it will inspire them to click on it. The company that did my cover was fantastic to work with, and their prices were great.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Besides hiring a professional to design my cover, I followed the advice of Joanna Penn, a prolific indie author, publisher, and blogger. I made a simple outline of my story and characters and then let my writing emerge. Most of the time, I didn’t’ start a chapter or scene knowing exactly what I was going to write. I let my imagination take over as I was writing.

What are you reading now?
At the moment, I’m between reads, but it’s Christmastime, and I put a few books on my gift list, including: The Deeper Shadow by A.M. Adair, and All Out War: A Novel (Eric Steele Book 2) by Sean Parnell.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I intend to focus on books 2 and 3 of my Preserve, Protect and Defend series, with the goal of publishing them both by January 2022.

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?
This is kind of funny. In 1987 (or ’88?), I applied to the MBA program at the College of William and Mary, and a question very similar to this was an essay on the application. William and Mary is in the historic village of Williamsburg, Virginia. The question asked what three books would I bring with me if I traveled back in time to Colonial Williamsburg. I don’t remember my entire answer, but I know the books I chose were very practical — I’m an engineer, after all. I remember I chose a history book so I would know what’s ahead of me, and a cookbook so I could eat my favorite dishes. On that practical note, I would bring some sort of survival guide with me to the desert isle. My other two choices would be something to pass the time — maybe the entire Harry Potter series for pure entertainment and escapism, and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, because I’ve wanted to read it for years but haven’t devoted the time to it.

Author Websites and Profiles
Dave Wall Website
Dave Wall Amazon Profile

Dave Wall’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Bing Fraser 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Bing Fraser, and I have a travelling problem. My 8 years of roaming the world have seen me arrested, held at gunpoint, lose my teeth, suffer a schizophrenic episode, crack my skull open (with the ensuing concussion lasting the better half of two years), get robbed more times than one could fathom, and greet death so many times, the Reaper is on my Christmas card list.
Unprotected Treks is my first book; a compilation of humourous short stories compiled to teach people what NOT to do when travelling the world.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is “Unprotected Treks: The Politically Incorrect Blueprint for World Travel”; the first of what will be a series of 107 books. Bad luck seems to follow me on the road, so I thought I’d share my mishaps with the world!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Tucker Max, Chelsea Handler

What are you working on now?
Books 2 through to 107

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Instagram: @kingbingfraser

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Hank Moody: “I can’t teach you how to write, and anybody who says they can is full of shit. The only thing I can do is write about the shit that excites me; the shit that gets me hard… Don’t be niggardly with your emotions. Just run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.”

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t be 80, looking back on what could’ve been. You may miss the ball, but don’t be sitting back here having not even taken a swing.

What are you reading now?
Greenlights: Matthew McConaughey

What’s next for you as a writer?
Just keep swimming.

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?
Steven Pinker: Enlightenment Now
Tucker Max: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
Bret Easton Ellis: American Psycho
Bing Fraser: Unprotected Treks

Author Websites and Profiles
Bing Fraser Website
Bing Fraser Amazon Profile

Bing Fraser’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account