Please check out the authors below and share them if you like on social media and help them out.
Good karma goes a long way. If you belong to an Author group help spread the word about our free author interview series. We have started a new Facebook author group that focuses on author interviews and podcast interviews. Come Join us!

Nijiama Smalls 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a southern belle born and raised in a small sleepy town in South Carolina. I relocated to the Washington DC area which is where I live now. I’m married to Pastor Shamon Smalls and together, we are raising two children.
I love nature and understanding human behavior. I study foundational theories of human behavior as a hobby. My purpose in life is simple–to curate healthy dialogue and to create healthy spaces for women of color to heal and embark in self-discovery. Follow me on social media to keep up with me, my journey, and my purpose: https://www.instagram.com/nijiamasmallsinreallife/

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Black Girl’s Guide to Healing Emotional Wounds- Devotional. It was inspired by the healing work I’ve done for myself and my journey to maintain emotionally healthy relationships.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My best ideas come to me while jogging or running.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
The Four Agreements, belle hooks, and P. Bunny Wilson

What are you working on now?
Part 3 of my book series

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Never stop writing

What are you reading now?
Assatu Shakur’s autobiography

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, 50 Shades of Grey (tee hee),

Author Websites and Profiles
Nijiama Smalls Website
Nijiama Smalls Amazon Profile

Nijiama Smalls’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Gail Aldwin 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Novelist, poet and scriptwriter, my debut coming-of-age novel The String Games was a finalist in The People’s Book Prize and the DLF Writing Prize 2020. Following a stint as a university lecturer, a children’s picture book Pandemonium was published. This Much Huxley Knows is my second contemporary novel for adults. Prior to Covid-19, I volunteered at Bidibidi in Uganda, the second largest refugee settlement in the world. When I’m not gallivanting around, I write at home overlooking water meadows in Dorset, UK.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I wanted to explore tensions around intergenerational friendships. This Much Huxley Knows suggests that we should look beyond the way people present to build connections. Although we may appear different on the surface in terms of age, colour, gender etc there is more that we have in common than that keeps us apart.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to write when there is complete silence, if that’s considered unusual!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
As my latest novel This Much Huxley Knows uses a young narrator, I’ve read lots of books with child characters to learn the skill. Amongst these are work by Emma Donoghue, Christopher Wakling and Stephen Kelman.

What are you working on now?
My work-in-progress is a dual timeline crime novel that captures the voice of a sixteen-year-old girl who experiences infatuations and exploitation during the 1970s. This is juxtaposed with a journalist who investigates her disappearance. It’s an interesting combination of voices.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve made links with lots of book bloggers and their reviews of This Much Huxley Knows have been affirming for me as an author as well as helping to spread the word.

The whole book is uplifting, funny, joyful, heartwarming, exceptionally poignant, and I just loved seeing life for a while through the eyes of a child with his refreshingly simpler perspective on right and wrong. Wonderful writing, and this is a book I’d thoroughly recommend to all.
Anne Williams, Being Anne

Full of the genuine confusion, pain, joy and wonder of growing up, and an excoriating insight into the mistakes and follies of adults, this book is really unlike anything you have read before and I absolutely loved it.
Julie, A Little Book Problem

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep working at your MS until you can virtually recite every word. Only then is your novel at the finishing line.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A career as a writer is full of rejections – grow a thick skin!

What are you reading now?
Volta by Nikki Dudley

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m working hard on the promotion of This Much Huxley Knows and hope to reach new readers in America. That’s the ambition.

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 God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Life of Pi, Yann Martel

Author Websites and Profiles
Gail Aldwin Website
Gail Aldwin Amazon Profile

Gail Aldwin’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Susan Corso 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Lots! I started out writing spiritual nonfiction, God’s Dictionary (Tarcher/Putnam)–a new e-edition will be out soon. And lots more since then, Tao for Now et al. From there, I’ve written three romance novels in the Boots & Boas series under the pseudonym Vivienne Hartt Quinn. Butch-femme romances based in Boston about chosen family. I’ve also written ten romantic mysteries, The Mex Mysteries, about high femme intuitive investigator Mexicali Rose Stone. Each one of these takes place around a musical, and the solves are in the lyrics of the shows.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Book(s) really. Ascending Apparition is the third book in the Boots & Boas Butch-Femme Romances. The death of one of the chosen family inspired it, oh, and the need to let go, heal, and move on. The other is Christmas Presence, the tenth mystery novel from The Mex Mysteries. What inspired this one was a deep love of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and the fact that it’s a theatrical cash cow all over the world.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m what’s known as a discovery writer. I start each mystery with a show, a social issue, and who died, but that’s it! The rest comes to me as I write. For Boots & Boas, I start with the couple who will be featured, their story, and what they have to learn. I discover the story as I go. It’s one of the reasons I love to write, and when I look back, I’m amazed at the connections I make–mostly not even consciously.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve been reading romance and mystery since I was a kid. Despite the fact that I’m a spiritual teacher and counselor, I found that reading fiction taught me more than self-help books. I’ve now figured out that it’s because fiction applies the lessons. I’m not interested in spiritual theory; I’m interested in spiritual practice. So, Diana Gabaldon, Laurie R. King, Dorothy Gilman, Victoria Vale, Sierra Simone, and, believe it or not, Barbara Cartland.

What are you working on now?
Book 4 of Boots & Boas called Upending Tradition.
Book 11 of The Mex Mysteries called Shrew This!
A deck of cards designed to help you manage your personal energy called the Integrity Spectrum
Oh, and a squillion other ideas that live in the corners of my mind …

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m relatively new at promotion so I’m on a steep learning curve, which is great. I love to learn new things. My websites, which I feel I finally got right, are https://susancorso.com for all my fiction and https://iampersand.org for all my spiritual writing and teaching.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes, just write. Kick your inner critic to the curb, and write what you want to write. All the rest of the work comes later. Keep writing till you get to the end. Then, like Alice, stop.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Collect rave rejections. It just means you’ve weeded out those who won’t get your work anyway.

What are you reading now?
Amateur by Thomas Page McBee about deconstructing masculinity.
The Misadventures Romances about odd couplings.
Castle Shade, the new Laurie R. King Mary Russell Holmes book
and all my research for Shrew and Upending.

What’s next for you as a writer?
The promotion learning curve. Connecting to other writers. Learning FB ads. Lots of pod-guesting. And writing, always writing, the through-line of my life.

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 jeez, I’m a Libra with a Gemini Moon. 3 or 4 books? This sounds like a nightmare to me. You know what I’d want to bring is my Kindle! But … I’ll soldier through and try: Diana Gabaldon’s Voyager, Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, my great grandmother’s first edition of Emerson’s Essays, and the Bible.

Author Websites and Profiles
Susan Corso Website
Susan Corso Amazon Profile

Susan Corso’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Lynda McDaniel 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve lived all over this country—from the Midwest to the Deep South to Appalachia to the Mid-Atlantic to the Pacific Northwest and finally California—and yet I find I often start stories and recollections with “When I lived in the mountains of North Carolina ….” My interests in so many things—writing, hiking, nature, mountain music, organic gardening, ecology—took root while I lived on a small farm there, an eager participant in the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s. I made mistakes by the wheelbarrowful, but I learned just about everything that matters to me today.
I was lucky to live near the Campbell Folk School, an amazing center for art, craft, and music (and featured in my novels as The Hickson School of American Studies). That’s where I was introduced to the music of my heritage. The first time I walked into the school’s wood-paneled community room where fiddlers played, it was like finding a lost relative.
My writing career also started at the Campell Folk School. One day the director asked if I’d like to learn public relations. To be honest, I should have answered, “What’s that?” Instead, I said, “Sure,” and took to it like ink to newsprint. I haven’t stopped writing since. These days, I spend my time writing my Appalachian Mountain Mysteries series. I started them as a way to share some of the unforgettable stories from my years in the mountains.
Before my novel-writing days, I crafted 1,200 articles for arts and culture magazines such as Southern Living, Country Living, AmericanStyle, Southwest Art, Yoga Journal, American Cinematographer, Chile Pepper, and Restaurants USA. Newspaper articles about art, food, and business ran in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Charlotte Observer, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, washingtonpost.com, among others. I’ve also written 15 nonfiction books, including several on the art and craft of writing.
I moved to the mountains of North Carolina on a whim. Why not? Let’s see what it’s like, we thought during those adventurous times. But decades later, I believe I was drawn to that place, signing on to a graduate program in life I didn’t realize I needed. By comparison, my life today seems so tame, but that doesn’t worry me. In the mountains of North Carolina, I also learned there is a season for everything.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Murder Ballad Blues” is the fourth book in my Appalachian Mountain Mysteries series (and I have two more books planned). I spent several months mulling over the plot of “Murder Ballad Blues”–and researching folk and bluegrass music. It’s more complex than the first three books in the series. I found it particularly challenging to get the dates and circumstances of the contemporary crimes to jibe with those of the historic murder ballads. Fortunately, I have a muse who comes sweeping in, anytime day or night, to offer ideas. The key for any writer is to listen and capture those gifts ASAP before they evaporate like a dream. For example, the character Wallis Harding came to me like that, and I think he’s one of the most successful characters I’ve ever developed. He’s funny, ornery, and kind, all wrapped in one.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to sleep on ideas. That’s not that unusual–or shouldn’t be–because for writers, our subconscious is the best co-author imaginable. Knowing that my subconscious will wake me up or speak to me first thing in the morning with creative ideas or necessary corrections let’s me write freely throughout the day. I know it has my back. I also take a lot of breaks. I’m not a believer in the misguided adage: “Writers must write every day.” Who says? I benefit from breaks that get me out into nature or put me in front of new people. We need that stimulation to make our writing fresher and more interesting.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love Michael Connelly’s clear and compelling storytelling style. His journalism background, like mine, taught him to think of his readers first. The art will follow. I also love William Kent Krueger. His heartfelt (but never saccharine) stories and beautiful writing are always inspiring. And who wouldn’t be inspired by Delia Owens and her lyrical writing style?

What are you working on now?
“Deep in the Forest,” the fifth book of the series (sixth counting the prequel novelette), is in its second draft. I love this phase–the hard work of bringing all the story components together is done. Now I get to fine-tune and add colorful or humorous touches. This book is a little different. It is a standalone, but the series characters all return for a trip to Ireland and England. There are still storylines set in Laurel Falls, N.C., but I’ve taken them to the New Forest in England, where I spent some very happy times earlier in my life. It’s slated to launch in the autumn of 2021.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have found making my prequel (“Waiting for You”) and first book in the series (“A Life for a Life”) free has triples my sales of the rest of the series. And my reviews have gone way up too. Amazon continues to be my best site for sales, but promo sites like Awesome Gang, Fussy Librarian, and Robin Reads do a wonderful job of supporting my sales.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t listen to your nagging, negative voice. I hope you don’t even have one, but most writers do. I’ve been a professional writer for 40 years, and I wish I had believed in myself sooner. Once I finally quit berating my nonfiction writing, I went on to write a lot of articles for major magazines and 15 nonfiction books. But when I started writing fiction about a decade ago, all that negative self-talk came back. Well, I finally vanquished that voice, too. But it’s hard work and takes time. So if you’re new at writing, start NOW to get rid of those unkind and untrue comments and ideas. Don’t believe them! If you really work at it and edit, edit, edit, you can be a good, maybe even great, writer.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Anne Lamott’s famous chapter from “Bird by Bird”–that all writers write awful first drafts. What a powerful step toward getting rid of negative self-talk! I thought to myself, “You mean I’m not the only one who writes bad first drafts.” She gave me permission to get the words down however they came and then work to make them better and better through a series of edits.

What are you reading now?
I just finished “Long Bright River” by Liz Moore. The storytelling style is very interesting–though the topic of dysfunctional families and drug addiction are difficult. But I persevered and was glad I read it. Excellent character developments and arcs.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ll keep plugging away at my Appalachian Mountain Mysteries series. I love my characters, so it’s fun to spend time with them.

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?
Black Echo, Michael Connelly
Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
This Tender Land, William Kent Krueger

Author Websites and Profiles
Lynda McDaniel Website
Lynda McDaniel Amazon Profile

Lynda McDaniel’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

MM CeDany 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Originally, it was two enormous books. Later on they were broken down in ten (digestible) … oops novels which became a series. Nowadays, all’s there in a compact five (5) books.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
As I had to revamp everything recently, all 5 are latest.
1) Trieste Her Journey is the beginning of her adventures.
2) ‘Tis Destiny. Covering the Prophecy she’s discovered through her Mother’s Diaries.
3) Mystical Exiled! The family expanded and their stories are unique.
4) Royal Leaves Tree As all good Genealogy a part of her relatives are having romantic adventures of their own.
5) Consigned To Oblivion! These were victims of their first war… How they were rescued from “Lost Souls City”.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I wrote at night in the attic. It was the quietest.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
The fictional and non-fiction books plus the films of 60s, 70s & more…

What are you working on now?
Waiting to repair laptop to reach books 2, 3, 4 & 5. Currently, reworking, new format and all on Book1.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesomegang, of course, then I’ve Twitter, BuyMeACoffee, Ko-Fi, Milkshake Website, Blogger & eventually Wattpad.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Always the same goals, to get people reading my stories.

Author Websites and Profiles
MM CeDany Website

MM CeDany’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Alexander Montrose 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
This is actually my first, I have been chipping away at this for a while. I wanted to add some scientific research to the book as I feel a lot of the ‘self-help’ genre is very much a case of fancy empty awe-inspiring words with no circumstantial evidence.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Nocturnal Genius

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
At night. Of course, 2 am is the most common time that I see nowadays since retirement.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Girl wash your face, By Rachel Hollis. My wife was reading it one night and fell asleep. So I borrowed it for a few hours and found it endlessly fascinating and inspiring for the next upcoming generation of women.

What are you working on now?
I have a few nonfiction ideas in the works, but I feel the upcoming generations of young businesspeople need a rude awakening of the new rules of capitalism and I would like to help them out in understanding how to handle their mental health better.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon is very useful but I do try to look into other indie websites.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Get that first draft done. It doesn’t matter if you hate it. It will be easier to flesh it out after your skeleton draft is built.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Let Go or Be Dragged.- This applies to people who stay in a 9-5 mindset.

What are you reading now?
The Count of Monte Cristo

What’s next for you as a writer?
Waiting for some inspiration to hit me in the face like a brick- as it usually does.

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?
Dune
Harry Potter ( It reminds me of my kids)
The Book thief

 

Tammy Campbell Brooks 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m Tammy Campbell Brooks a writer, wife, and a mother. I love to read Black history and write during my spare time. I have written six books and my latest is Brilliant Daye released on Jun 24, 2021.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Brilliant Daye is my latest novel. I was inspired to write about disenfranchised communities and creatively weave it into a book about realistic events.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes, I love writing on the fly so that I won’t get writer’s block

What authors, or books have influenced you?
The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
An Unapologetic Guide To Mental Black Health.

What are you working on now?
Brilliant Daye book 2

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon.com
Ingramspark.com

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing and never give up.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You are never too old to accomplish your goals.

What are you reading now?
News articles about stocks.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Complete my MBA and keep writing.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Ghetto Blues
Daddy Issues
Tar Baby
Tar Baby 2
Brilliant Daye

Author Websites and Profiles
Tammy Campbell Brooks Website
Tammy Campbell Brooks Amazon Profile

Tammy Campbell Brooks’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile

Teresa Gumap-as Dumadag 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have always loved writing. I started writing poems and journals in early elementary. I continued doing so until my single years. Part of my journals was included in some of my first books.

I now have 9 books that I solely authored. I co-authored 2 more books.

I have 3 kids, all boys. I breastfed and homeschooled all of them.

Before I became a writer, I was first a bookworm.

One of my dreams is to illustrate at least one of my children’s stories. I also love to paint. But I have not painted in years.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The title of my latest book is Homeschool Moms at the Feet of Jesus: 31 Days of Encounter with our Lord. I was inspired to write it because many parents found themselves suddenly homeschooling due to the pandemic. I wanted to help them, especially the moms, who are usually the main teachers. I’m sharing what I have learned so far as a homeschool mom who has homeschooled for at least a decade.

I know very well that we cannot rely solely on our abilities and we should not do that because if God has called us to homeschool our children, He will, surely, help us. And that has been my family’s experience in the past years.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Some parts of the books I have written were written while I was inside the Church or in front of the Blessed Sacrament. That is one of my unusual writing habits.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Some of the authors who influenced me and inspired me were Elizabeth Elliot, Elizabeth George, Stormie Omartian, Bo Sanchez, and of course, the Bible.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on the recording of my first audiobook. This is the next step after launching my latest book, which is a devotional for homeschool moms.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think one of the best methods in promoting my books is by having a community that supports and believes in your work and having a mailing list.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be persistent. Your time will come. Keep fighting for your dream. Be willing to make sacrifices. But don’t sacrifice your integrity, your faith, or your family.

Keep believing in yourself. But that should not also stop you from looking for ways to grow and improve.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write from the heart.

What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading The 5 Love Languages of Children.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m looking for a publisher for my latest children’s story. It’s a Christmas story and I hope to have it published before Christmas this 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?
The Bible, Just Enough Light for the Step I’m On, and You Were Made for a God-Sized Dream.

Author Websites and Profiles
Teresa Gumap-as Dumadag Website
Teresa Gumap-as Dumadag Amazon Profile

Teresa Gumap-as Dumadag’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account