Awesome Author Interviews

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Author of 35 non-fiction and novels.
For the past thirty years, Rick Clements has worked directly with the people designing everything from immortal cows to killer robots to the perfect bagel. He is the former President of Solution Specialists, a consulting company dealing with the development and deployment of new technologies. Rick is a widely published author of non-fiction works explaining the implications and application of new technologies. Today he is working on a series of mystery novels that highlight the new world being developed by organizations and groups working in secret. He has also traveled extensively and spends his free time exploring deep space from the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, scaring older people with his drone overflights, and is an active participant in a program of bio-engineering to extend his lifespan to at least 120 years.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Revenge on a Cruel World – inspired by a deep-dive into the world of cryptocurrency and the people building Web 3.0. Can regular people build their own form of government out of thin air. Yes, but this book deals with the consequences.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write one chapter a day. That’s it. Then it’s off to do something else.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Books such as Unsettled Science, How to Survive the Titanic, The Important Things, The Big Short, and a lot of Clive Cussler’s work.

What are you working on now?
Revenge of the Sex Robots. A follow up on The Sexual Assistant, where we explore the moral and ethical questions of a sex robot with synthetic intelligence.

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

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Lots. Keep writing, write what you know and experience, keep it fun.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“In the battle between platitudes and physics, physics is undefeated.”

What are you reading now?
Blockchain Wars

What’s next for you as a writer?
More travel, more books written.

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?
Basic Survival Manual
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
The Kiss that Saved the World, by me

Author Websites and Profiles
Rick Clements Website
Rick Clements Amazon Profile

Rick Clements’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born in New York, growing up there before moving to Massachusetts in order to attend Harvard University’s prestigious weekend bartending course. I was also an English Minor at Brandeis and did a bit of creative writing there. However, I’ve recently had enough spare time to write my first full-length novel. I now look forward to my next project, raising a newborn daughter alongside my wonderful wife.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
It’s a Cyberpunk Action-Adventure called “Dystopia’s Edge”. I love thriller novels that can be read for fun as a kind of beach read. I also love the Cyberpunk genre because it can convey themes of how advancements in technology don’t always coincide with advancements in the human condition.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My wife goes to bed about an hour before I do. For about a year, I decided to try creative writing in that block of time rather than playing video games. It appears that I’ve now written a novel.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I can’t speak highly enough of the works written by Candice Millard. Her historical narratives detailing the lives of Theodore Roosevelt and James A. Garfield are simply outstanding.

What are you working on now?
I’ve got another novel in the works. But with a baby on the way, that’s might take a back seat until my daughter gets on a normal sleep schedule

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I got a lot of love on the Cyberpunk subreddit and various Cyberpunk Facebook groups. In my case, it helps to connect with fans of my genre.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write. Put in the time. Nobody is going to do that for you. And you can only learn by doing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Keith Richards once said at one of his concerts, “It’s good to see everybody! Heck, it’s good to see anybody!”

What are you reading now?
“Nation” by Terry Pratchett. I would highly recommend. It’s always interesting to go through his works unrelated to the Discworld franchise.

What’s next for you as a writer?
A lot of diaper changes. Plus some more scifi action once I get a handle on those.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d take 3 photo albums of my family, because I’d miss them all greatly. Plus maybe “Watchmen” by Alan Moore.

Author Websites and Profiles
Ian Price Website
Ian Price Amazon Profile

Ian Price’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Kathleen Kelly is a USA Today Best Selling Author and was born in Penrith, NSW, Australia. When she was four her family moved to Brisbane, QLD, Australia. Although born in NSW she considers herself a QUEENSLANDER!!

She married her childhood sweetheart and they live in Toowoomba.

Kathleen enjoys writing contemporary, romance novels with a little bit of steam. She draws her inspiration from family, friends and the people around her. She can often be found in cafes writing and observing the locals.

Currently I have out 25 books with many more planned.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Spark of Redemption.
It’s a band of brothers series. This one follows the youngest in the MacKenny family and I loved the idea of following brothers in a series to see where they would end up. I am part of a large family with six sisters and two brothers and we couldn’t be more different. I wanted to explore this in a series. It is not based on my family but more on the complexities of relationships between siblings and how I wish my own family was closer.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
When I’m at home I need silence. No music, no TV, absolute silence.
But I write more words if I am in a cafe with all the hustle and bustle around me.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love JR Ward and her Black Dagger Brotherhood.
For an Independent Author it would have to be MariaLisa DeMora, she is a true wordsmith.

What are you working on now?
Book 2 in my Grinders series. It’s called Curtis: The Grinders Book 2.
It’s based around a bass guitarist in a rock band. He’s a hopeless romantic who is forever getting married and getting taken to the cleaners as he never gets to sign a pre-nup. Curtis is a gorgeous character with a lot of love to give but he’s forever picking the wrong ones and it’s not until he finds himself that he realizes he doesn’t need a woman to make him whole.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My own newsletter is gold for promoting myself. These are normally “real” fans who want to know more about me and whenever I send out a newsletter, I sell more books.
Red Feather is a paid promotions company and always does well for me.
BookBub IF you can get one and I haven’t for a long time.
Lastly, Facebook for paid advertising.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write, publish, repeat.
Keep going.
Surround yourself with a group of like-minded authors who can offer advice, support and encouragement.
Not everyone is going to like your book and that’s okay, I’m sure you don’t like everything you read.
Don’t be a douchebag to other Authors, NEVER leave less than a 5 star review on someone else’s book. If you don’t like it, don’t review it.
Be nice.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Writing the book is easy.
The hard part is marketing the book, learn how to do it all.

What are you reading now?
Prize by LV Lane. Her first one, Prey, was VERY good.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To keep going.
To finish all my series this year and then start new projects.

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?
Lover Eternal by JR Ward
Alace Sweets by MariaLisa DeMora
The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay
Savage Stalker by Kathleen Kelly – ME 🙂

Author Websites and Profiles
Kathleen Kelly Website
Kathleen Kelly Amazon Profile

Kathleen Kelly’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Author of British paranormal romance series The Redcliffe Novels, I was raised on books from a young age and has happy memories of Saturday mornings spent in my small local library, devouring the contents of the shelves. I have always been fascinated by the supernatural world, and it feels natural for me to write about vampires, werewolves, witches and other mystical creatures in my contemporary stories.

More recently, I released contemporary English Gothic novel, Vampire of Blackpool. These novels will show you the darker, sexier side of our favourite British seaside resorts! I am currently working on a new series of novels featuring vampire hunters that work in and around Manchester and the North West of England.

Known as SpookyMrsGreen: The Pagan Housewife, I run a pagan lifestyle blog chronicling my adventures in mothering and magic, with a series of non-fiction books to follow, when I find time to write them!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Return of the Vampire Hunter, part of my growing vampire hunter series of novels. It was inspired by a short story I wrote (but never published) about a bored housewife who meets a vampire and how the experience changes her forever.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think so. I do tend to daydream about my writing projects while out walking the dog, and I have been known to walk into hanging baskets and lampposts because I am away in my fantasy world, writing in my mind.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Laurell K Hamilton has been a huge influence with her Anita Blake series, but my first introduction was the Nightworld series of books by L.J. Smith. They showed me a world that I had dreamed about but never found in my library, and from there I discovered a whole new genre of novels. Back then they were simply labelled ‘paranormal’ in the bookshops. I moved on to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles after that and my creative juices began to flow.

What are you working on now?
I am now working on Book 6 in my Redcliffe Novels series set in Cornwall, England. This is the final instalment in the box set and will finish what we started with our heroine Jessica Stone in Love Hurts (A Redcliffe Novel). Book 1. These books have been a passion project and were a work in progress from the late 90s up until I got published in 2011. Our innocent human woman has awakened as a witch and proved more than a match for her vampire and werewolf companions, and she will save the men she loves and protect her pack from the enemy.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still searching for that Holy Grail! For a while I found Instagram a good tool but it was short-lived and needs a lot of work. There is no quick fix.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just write the damn book! I get so hung up on sales and marketing that I forget where I started in the first place. My books are truly my babies and I continue to amaze myself at the stories that appear from nowhere when I write. This is my passion and it makes me feel good, so I will keep on doing it because I have to. I would whither away without my writing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write the damn book! People will give you advice from all arenas, whether they work in publishing or not (mostly not) and because there are so many possibilities they cannot all work for everyone. We have to find our own way and our own methods.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading a book about Karuna Reiki for my day job, and the fourth novel in the Shogun Quartet by Lesley Downer, The Samurai’s Daughter.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Oh, lots of projects. Finish the box set for the Redcliffe Novels and relaunch them with some updates and fresh content. Finish the sequel to Vampire of Blackpool. Finish a few more manuscripts in my vampire hunter series. That should keep me busy for a while!

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?
Some huge coffee table books! Perhaps a couple of books about witchcraft and ghosts, and then a couple of fiction favourites. I can’t decide which ones.

Author Websites and Profiles
Catherine Green Website
Catherine Green Amazon Profile
Catherine Green Author Profile on Smashwords

Catherine Green’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Boshra Rasti was raised in British Columbia, Canada and works as an expatriate teacher in Qatar. She received a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership at Royal Roads University, which proved a fateful blow to her belief in anything hierarchical. However, it did spark her desire to flee from the real world and start writing about other ones. When she is not working to earn a living, she enjoys the escape that reading and writing lend her. She also enjoys physical running, even if it is of the sadistic variety in Qatar.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Surrogate Colony was inspired by a Cyberpunk workshop I attended at my local writing club. I had to write a monologue for a character that lived in a dystopian world. The result: Adriana Buckowski who is the unusual and fierce main character of Surrogate Colony.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Other than procrastinating by making elaborate dishes, like cabbage rolls and Blackforest cake (not in the same dish), I don’t.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Former Soviet Block writers tantalize me. I believe the creative spirit when brushing up against its own annihilation becomes a force that nothing can squelch, not even the most fearful of dictators.

What are you working on now?
I am working on the sequel and prequel of Surrogate Colony.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Goodreads is. I hope they aren’t affiliated in any deep way with Amazon…I have a few choice words…

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just write. Breath it, feel it, rip it up, through a book across a room…but still write.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
So what? Every time you write a paragraph, ask yourself…so what?!

What are you reading now?
What Feeds the Heart by Daryl Glinn-Tanner

What’s next for you as a writer?
Don’t give up. Keep on honing my craft. Look up; things are bigger than right 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?
Probably books that are going to make me feel better about being on a desert island. That means stories of doom and gloom.
“One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”
“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”
“Man’s Search for Meaning”

Author Websites and Profiles
Boshra Rasti Website
Boshra Rasti Amazon Profile

Boshra Rasti’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written fifteen hundred novels and novelettes in my time. Precious prosody go wrist in sleight of hand with the poem that floods then ebbs and then fifty years fly on by…OH the furore of flights of fantasy I have seen! For I appear to be eternal you see. Do not quake no do not shiver, for I do not ask for cherished cashola just that you read my cherished works with the greats in mind, for I have met them all. Dostoevsky (hates cheese), my GOD! Knut Hamsun (Gotta love his bedtime stories) Alberto Moravia (what a whore) Charles Bukowski (he sure did not like me lingering around him), Louis Ferdinand Celine (after the first ten minutes, proved to be a real conversationalist) August Strindberg (slap me right in the kisser but didn’t spit on my brown brogues, sweet mercy), Yukio Mishima ( I tried to talk him out of it) Hermann Hesse (did not like me referring to him as ole fairy cheeks in the company of widows especially).
-Follow the Feeling
-Twenty-first mankind blues (my favourite)
-The lovers (bonkers but new to literature)
-The general pointlessness of being (Coming of age written unlike anybody else)

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I am in the process of finishing a novel about time. The fairytale, the myth, the man (working title).
There are life’s ebbs and flows, part poetry, part prosody. Recurring motifs recycling themselves into new and intricate ways. It near enough sent me insane. Think Kobo Abe Kafka-esque dreams…

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I am always attempting to quit.
I’d rather live a different life where I could use my limited resources (the mind and my wilting knees) to be financially free. Work then retire. Alas I struggle with the minds compulsions. I am drawn back in and overcome with the knowledge that this is pretty much the only thing I can do. I am nothing else ( I have made a really bad movie) I love travelling across Europe and walking up mountains, waiting for my rapid heart beat to revive then fall on down life’s scenic views…
but all I really wanna do is sit down, drink copious amounts of coffee, dig right into the heart and spread those Icarus wings towards the red setting sun.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
All the dead ones:
Knut Hamsun – Pan, mysteries,
Alberto Moravia- Boredom and contempt
Charles Bukowski – anything really.
Louis Ferdinand Celine – Journey to the end of the night
Herman Hesse, Yukio Mishima, Dostoevsky (hate spelling this legends name), Steve Tesich (Karoo is sublime), Strindberg and Baudelaire’s spirit lives on through me in a weird way.
and probably a fuck tonne more!

What are you working on now?
After I had gone insane I quickly dashed off another novel I am yet to re-read that takes the piss out of all culture, all ways of life but none more harsher than he is on himself, (which rings true for all human beings). For me this is the kind of book I’d like to read from another. again, I am yet to read it back through…could be rather shite!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I only wish I knew. I am poor. I crave readers more than money. so….yeah, wish I knew.
If anybody finds any feel free to email me Ddavidcroot@gmail.com.
I will pay you with my novels nobody reads.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you can do something else. do ittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!
Self inflicted torture, mutilation of the dog-bollocks rotting soul takes its toll!

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

What are you reading now?
Japanese literature. Just finished Rashomon and seventeen other stories.
Gonna learn about Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard
maybe some Chinese literature.

What’s next for you as a writer?
multitudinous attempts at pushing back the day of reckoning upon oneself!

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’m afraid I would not bring a book or trois!
I’d bring sexy lesbians!
just so I could watch their show again and again and again.
rejections already my hearts home but I’d enjoy their splendour!

Author Websites and Profiles

D. David Croot Website
D. David Croot Amazon Profile

D. David Croot’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

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Author Interview Series

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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in southeast Wisconsin, and I have always had a love for writing. Books, blogs, and poems are my usual mediums. I write because that is how I make sense of the world around me. It’s a bridge between God and I, and I want to bring others on that bridge. I have written and published 2 books so far with more in the works. The first, Kaleidoscope A Journey to Hope, is a fiction novel about human trafficking told from the point of view of four trafficked girls trying to get out and restart their lives. The second is a nonfiction book on mental health and faith titled, Winning the Silent Battle Exposing 8 Lies Hindering Your Mental Health.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Winning the Silent Battle Exposing 8 Lies Hindering Your Mental Health, is part memoir, part self help book. The book is about some of the lies that I believed that kept me trapped in mental illness. I share about how my faith helped me heal, as well as some practical truths that I learned. My book focuses on perfectionism, anxiety, and self injury ideation. I also touch a bit on addiction.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I love to have a cup of tea while I write. Sometimes I have music or a movie as background noise. My cat likes to sit on my lap while I write, and I miss her when she isn’t there.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Authors: Kris Vallotton, Lisa Bevere, John Bevere, Sheri Rose Shepherd, Patricia Rushford
Books: Not for Sale, Lioness Arising, Poverty, Riches & Wealth, Honors Reward

What are you working on now?
Right now I am working on a blog, YouTube channel (speak91-R.I.S.E.), and a children’s book

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook so far

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t give up. Your story matters.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Finish the rough draft, then edit!

What are you reading now?
Proverbs, the Complete Works of Van Gogh

What’s next for you as a writer?
Build consistency with everyday 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 Bible, Poverty, Riches & Wealth, the Complete Works of Van Gogh

Author Websites and Profiles

Desiree Young Website

Desiree Young Amazon Profile

Desiree Young’s Social Media Links

Facebook Profile

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Author Interview Series

To discover a new author, check out our Featured Authors page. We have some of the best authors around. They are just waiting for you to discover them. If you enjoyed this writer’s interview feel free to share it using the buttons below. Sharing is caring!

If you are an author and want to be interviewed just fill out out Author Interview page. After submitting we will send it out in our newsletters and social media channels that are filled with readers looking to discover new books to read.

If you are looking for a new book to read check out our Featured Books Page.

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Multiple-award winning author Sally Brandle weaves slow-burning romance into edgy suspense, motivating readers to trust their instincts. Growing up as a tomboy alongside helpful brothers prepared her to work in a male-centric industry (wholesale food service sales) and raise respectful sons. She takes pride in creating action-packed stories featuring strong women who find men deserving of their love. Her unintentional heroines conquer their vulnerabilities and partner with heroes to outwit cunning villains in her three traditionally published books. She penned her fourth book, Sapphire Promise, the enhanced memoir of her friend, Iris. This story presented a challenge to stay true to her idyllic life while portraying the colonial aspect of 1938 Batavia, Java, in a sensitive manner. Research and consultations with a variety of experts proved invaluable. Photos bring the world to life. Sally’s rescued Tuxedo cat, Shepherd dog, and Blue Heeler are her companions during long spells of writing or bouts of tormenting weeds in her garden. Afternoons she often spends riding on the wind with her thirty-one years young Quarter Horse.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Sapphire Promise” tells the true story of an amazing friend. We met while volunteering together at the Seattle Art Museum. How can you not ask more questions when you learn that the elegant, pristinely dressed older woman standing beside you once rode her horse through an Indonesian jungle with a pet monkey! After the Japanese invasion of WWII, her ability to speak five languages and limited nursing training landed her in the position of internment camp and hospital interpreter. English was the common language. Ninety percent of the book is true. As the book took place eighty years prior, we needed to fabricate a few scenes for flow. The book has been lauded as inspirational, historically accurate, and uplifting.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I often hammer out plot issues while swimming.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I enjoy Jayne Ann Krentz. Her less-than-perfect characters and witty dialogue hook me every time.

What are you working on now?
I’m deliberating which book to edit and offer to my acquiring editor from my publishing company. I have three more books written in the Love Thrives in Emma Springs series, and can’t decide which one to pick.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
For the series books, I need to work with my publisher to get my book free or discounted. Then I begin booking ads with my own money to get the word out. Awesome Gang is at the top of the list.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Take classes and listen to successful authors for tips on making your book shine. Then, implement their suggestions in your book, let it sit for a week, and re edit before you send it to a professional editor. Editing takes me nearly twice as long as writing the story.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You aren’t getting any younger, get publishing!

What are you reading now?
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram Kendri. Writing Sapphire Promise gave me insight into how the colonial attitude is still prevalent today. It is based on policies.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’d like to finish the book for my publisher, then write how my grandmother emigrated from Ireland in 1902, worked for a very wealthy family, and left a stack of postcards and a diary which shed light on her challenging life. She died when Mom was ten, so I never met her.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d want a big notepad to write and sketch on, 1492-The Year the World Began, The Bible-probably a student’s edition, and a boat building book!

Author Websites and Profiles

Sally Brandle Website

Sally Brandle Amazon Profile

Sally Brandle’s Social Media Links

Goodreads Profile

Facebook Profile

Twitter Account

Pinterest Account

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Author Interview Series

To discover a new author, check out our Featured Authors page. We have some of the best authors around. They are just waiting for you to discover them. If you enjoyed this writer’s interview feel free to share it using the buttons below. Sharing is caring!

If you are an author and want to be interviewed just fill out out Author Interview page. After submitting we will send it out in our newsletters and social media channels that are filled with readers looking to discover new books to read.

If you are looking for a new book to read check out our Featured Books Page.

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Sanath Kumar Naibhi is a creative personality striving to live life to the fullest and inspire creatives through creating and sharing artworks in various forms – music videos, blogs, etc

The Flower of Fulfilment is the first book by him.

Sanath Kumar Naibhi is a Carnatic Classical musician, violin being his instrument of expertise. He has completed his Proffeciancy Level Music Exam ( Vidwat ) in distinction and has performed over 400 concerts mainly including accompanying a variety of skilled musicians, various solos, and duet violin with his master Vidwan Yashasvi Subbarao. He is now a violin master to a dozen of students, teaching both online and offline.
He creates a very unique style of music videos on his YouTube channel titled his name, blending his proficiency in Carnatic music with his passion and skill in video lighting, cinematography, and video editing. And his website – www.sanathkumarnaibhi.com is ideally the hub for all the forms of the creative outlet of all which he loves to express.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The idea of writing this book started as a random thought of me wanting to answer to myself the question “Where do you see yourself in another 5 years?”, which apparently is one of the most popular questions people ask. To be precise the idea originated on my sister’s birthday as a disguise of a thought “make a plan for my life”, which I named later “The Awareness Project” and even later, it transformed into the book you’re holding now. And I wish I could personally show you all those its-and-bits of writing that I’ve written in my journal that gives you an idea of the whole journey of this book. It’s very fascinating! Especially the beginning. [I’ve included a few images of those pages from my journal ]
By the way, I still think that question “Where do you see yourself in 5 years” is absurd, I still don’t like it. Instead of a destination, I set myself to figure out paths that are ideal for a life of fulfillment, a life of balance.

The awareness project was just writing down aspects of life, philosophies of life in the books that I’ve read and reflections that I gained through various kinds of experiences life threw at me and realizations I’ve been blessed with. Connecting the dots and trying to get a clearer picture of life, which I’ve been trying to do for a few years now.

Then I started writing and writing and writing all to realize this would have been so much helpful to my past self, to my younger self. My diary started filling, with knowledge, reflections, and wisdom. That’s when I decided I had to spread awareness and share the same in the form of this book. So this basically, is my perspective on life. And I’ve read a variety of self-help, personal development, psychology, and philosophy books which are great and filled with powerful wisdom that if you try to practice it, your life gets better. But one thing I found hard was to comprehend and practice all these books together. Like how scientists are trying to find and are working on a unified theory that can hold the equations of Newtonian physics as well as quantum mechanics, etc, I wanted to connect various Life philosophies, self-help, and concepts related to personal development, and form mental models of my own. And I think that’s what this book will be doing, to connect all the dots. To connect all the philosophies and best practices from all the books I loved and the practices I’ve received benefits from.
This book isn’t about one thing because it’s about life, and life isn’t about mastering one skill or about one thing, it’s about balance!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think this is unusual. When I wrote this book, I made it a habit that I wrote every day at the same time sitting in the same place most of the time.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Robin Sharma has influenced me the most. My Book is also styled similar to Robin Sharma’s Monk who sold his Ferrari. But of course, a lot of other books have influenced my writing. Some of them are: Mastery by Rober Greene
The War Of Art by Steven Pressfield
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Brain Rules by John Medina
FLOW by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Deep Work by Cal Newport
Breathe by James Nestor
Why We Sleep by Mathew Walker
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
The Almanac Of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson

What are you working on now?
I’m just working on getting all the parts of publishing and marketing my book done well. Then I plan to write my second book which I still have no idea of!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still unsure, I’m just entering this field. I hope Awesome Gang does best in promoting my book. IDK.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Practice! That’s the only thing you can rely on! Write every day, collect your insights and reflections, read more books, and again, write more!

What are you reading now?
Linchpin by Seth Godin

What’s next for you as a writer?
I write a blog every week, so for now, I’ll just do that.

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

Author Websites and Profiles

Sanath Kumar Website

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Author Interview Series

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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a paranormal romance author who lives with her husky in the rural wilds of Scotland, writing (and reading!) paranormal rom and fantasy novels with a pinch of naughtiness.

I love backbone to my romance – it can’t just be steamy, it has to have an amazing story-line too! You can rely on my books to deliver intrigue and plot twist, laced with a little bit of steam.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Luna Ascending is a paranormal fantasy romance – and the second book in the series, Luna Eclipse, will be out in February 2022!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to write curled up with my back against the radiator to stay cozy.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love both the paranormal and fantasy genres and I’m ALWAYS on the hunt for new authors to follow

What are you working on now?
I’m putting the final touches to Luna Eclipse, in The Wolves of Fenrir Watch Series

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
To promot my books I like to use social media – especially instagram

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just write – editing can tear your soul out later – get it down on paper or you won’t have anything to edit!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?

What are you reading now?
The Kingdom of Flesh and Fire

What’s next for you as a writer?
The final book in The Wolves of Fenrir Watch is rattling around in my brain desperate to get out onto paper!

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?
LOTR, Circe, and a couple of steamy PNRs

Author Websites and Profiles

Zana Wilder Website

Zana Wilder Amazon Profile

Zana Wilder’s Social Media Links

Goodreads Profile

Facebook Profile

Twitter Account

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Author Interview Series

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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a Haitian self-taught fashion designer, born in Haiti living in England. I have written 7 children’s books and published my first one ”The Magic Mirror” in Mai 2021

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My last book is called “The Magic Mirror”
Separated from both my parents at a young age and not having any role model to teach me how to self-love, I suffered from depression and anxiety from my early childhood.
I never like to see my reflection in the mirror. Becoming a mother I now decide to teach my daughter to love herself. Publishing “The Magic Mirror” as my first book is also a way for me to make peace with the mirror I hated for so long.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to clean before I start to write.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I enjoy reading memoirs, I am fascinated by how some people turn their life around and overcome traumatic memories.

What are you working on now?
I am now working on my memoir

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use different types of social media like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook…

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do not overthink, give it a try stay true to yourself as I believe that we all have a different writing style, and all stories deserve to be read.
It was difficult for me to publish my book as English is not my first language but today there is all sorts of help to help us bring our stories to life.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I have been giving in moments of doubt is that there are many stories out there but my one is unique and still missing.

What’s next for you as a writer?
At the moment I am reading “Healing Letters” a memoir written by Aurea Reis

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I will take my book “The Magic Mirror” “Healing letters” by Aurea Reis and “Le dernier jour d’un condamné” by Victor Hugo

Author Websites and Profiles

Dayane Dorlys Website

Dayane Dorlys Amazon Profile

Dayane Dorlys’s Social Media Links

Facebook Profile

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Author Interview Series

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Author Interview Series

To discover a new author, check out our Featured Authors page. We have some of the best authors around. They are just waiting for you to discover them. If you enjoyed this writer’s interview feel free to share it using the buttons below. Sharing is caring!

If you are an author and want to be interviewed just fill out out Author Interview page. After submitting we will send it out in our newsletters and social media channels that are filled with readers looking to discover new books to read.

If you are looking for a new book to read check out our Featured Books Page.

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written two books now (hopefully several more to come!)

I graduated from the University of Georgia with a double major in Finance and Management and my certificate of Entrepreneurship and married my soul mate, Anna.

Besides coaching, I own a real estate house flipping business in the Atlanta area where we have flipped dozens of homes and grown into a thriving local business out of nothing. I invest in rental properties, currently owning several Airbnbs, single-family houses, and even some commercial properties. This entrepreneurial and investment experience plays a big role in how I coach other young people who struggle in these areas of life.

I attend Buckhead Church, where I have led men’s groups and serve as a mentor for Renew. In my mentor position here, I’ve helped many young men grow deeper in their faith and navigate life’s hardships.

In my heart, I am a seeker of adventure, knowledge, and self-discovery in all areas of life. I am a builder of people, producer of passion, and catalyst for profound growth. My friends, colleagues, and clients describe me as optimistic, calm, inspiring, thoughtful, responsible, and a visionary. They know that I bring a gentle, humble confidence to the world through the people I know and work with.

In my free time, I like to read, enjoy the outdoors, hike, play sports, and watch college football.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Life Transformation Workbook: 40+ Exercises to Help You Create Your Life Vision, Discover Your Purpose, and Much More!

I wanted to create a workbook that was focused on getting results and taking action. Many nonfiction books generate great ideas but often fail with several action steps you can take. This workbook is a collection of the best exercises I have come across over the years to help you in several different life areas.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think so.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss, Robert Kiyosaki

What are you working on now?
Launching a series of workbooks more targeted on specific life areas and coaching clients to help them transform their lives!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Utilizing my personal network.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Stick with it. Done is better than perfect!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
What a question! It’s hard to pick one thing.

“This too shall pass”

The quality of your life depends on the quality of your emotions.

What are you reading now?
Letters of a stoic.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I will create more workbooks in more specific categories.

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?
Letters of a stoic
Tribe of Mentors
As a man thinketh
The Bible

Author Websites and Profiles

Hunter Carson Website

Hunter Carson Amazon Profile

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Author Interview Series

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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I write inspirational non-fiction, visionary fiction, and run an online enlightenment workshop. Enlightenment and storytelling have interesting parallels, which invited me to write a book about storytelling – The Eight Crafts of Writing. I was born in Germany and, after graduating, enjoyed two years backpacking in Australia, New Zealand, and South-East Asia. Prior to my writing adventure, I pursued a career as a business development manager in Europe, Middle East, and Asia. . Semis-retired now, I live with my son in the Philippines.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest book is The Eight Crafts of Writing. Learning fiction writing felt like parachuting into an unknown mountain terrain. Every time I climbed a mountain (a writing craft or skill), I discovered another one to scale. Five years into my writing adventure, I still couldn’t see the end of it. I looked for a ‘map’ with an overview of the writing craft, but couldn’t find one. Most writing coaches specialize in two or three crafts. Also, they prefer to focus on either story structure (left brain) or story experience (right brain). So, I drew up the storytelling map myself.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I meditate on scenes. Creative writing (writing scenes) is a right-brain affair and story structure and editing/rewriting is a left-brain affair. Meditation syncs the brain’s two hemispheres, which allows writing in the stream of consciousness.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I like Robert McKee’s philosophical approach to storytelling.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a medieval/historical/heroic fantasy novella called Everknight. Everknight is a story of uncompromising honor. If you lost your life in a bet and were given a year to live, would you go to your execution when the time comes? Would you go out of your way to get there? Would you be a knight?
We need to return to love (Marianne Williamson) and to honor. But not that cliche honor that is open to abuse. A new honor that we can only find within.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Influencer outreach: be a guest on podcasts and write guest posts.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Get an overview of the writing craft(s), before you parachute into the storytelling jungle.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Fiction writing is complex and we can find a lot of great advice in books and on the Internet. If I had to choose the most important advice, I’d say, “Write every day three to four hours.”

What are you reading now?
Wool by Hugh Howey

What’s next for you as a writer?
In the context of religion, Jesus was the great exception. In the context of enlightenment, Jesus was the great example. The latter is a story untold.

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 Book of Tokens and the “Book of Nature” (Tarot).

Author Websites and Profiles
Stefan Emunds Website
Stefan Emunds Amazon Profile

Stefan Emunds’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tammy Melo is an New author from Ontario Canada. She loves to write children’s books and create fun stories. Graduating in Design, her background has an artful past. Her love of designing characters and telling fictional stories can be highlighted in her first children’s book ‘Peanut and Potato Save the Planet Project!’ The first in a series of adventures

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My First book is called ‘Peanut and Potato Save the Planet Project!’ The first in a series of adventures with Peanut and Potato.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes, I Brainstorm ideas in a notebook and then cross out and add until things sounds right and then I have the conversation of the characters with my daughter to try it out. We usually laugh and that’s how I know it will work.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Children’s book’s have influenced me the most. My daughter and I love the Scaredy Squirrel series

What are you working on now?
I am currently working on the second adventure where Peanut and Potato take on saving the Oceans

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I currently have my books published through Amazon and have promoted through their advertising

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes, Stick with it and don’t give up! Seeing your book come to life is the greatest feeling

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Dream big and accomplish your goals – My Mom

What are you reading now?
I am currently reading ‘Your guide on how to not get murdered in a quaint English village’
I am a sucker for mystery

What’s next for you as a writer?
Hopefully I will be able to complete a series of great and inspirational children’s’ books

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Complete Sherlock Holmes. by Arthur Conan Doyle

Death on the Nile. by Agatha Christie

In Cold Blood. by Truman Capote.

Author Websites and Profiles
Tammy Melo Amazon Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve lived a strange life with no sign of that changing any time soon. I taught myself to read at the age of three. One day while watching my mother read to me the strange black lines on the page suddenly snapped into focus and became words I could understand. It happened all at once and utterly shocked my mother when she discovered me reading to my stuffed animals later that day. She tested me with a book I’d never seen before and turns out I actually did teach myself to read. I was writing stories and poetry by the age of 7 and reading at a college level by age 13.
Then life took a much darker turn and I discovered more of the world than one should at that age but I’ll save the gory details for my memoir.
I like writing fiction because I can be utterly truthful.
I like writing science fiction because I’m fascinated with our potential as a species to create amazing almost impossible things and the license to wrestle with the larger sociological implications of our actions.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Faery Tales of the Future – my latest book, came about from my own fascination with traditional fairy tales combined with an abiding love of science fiction. Not the Disney kind of fairy tale, the darker Brothers Grimm type that carried a warning or a lesson or a contemplation of human nature and the supernatural. So many of our stories come from deeper darker roots. It got me wondering what stories would humanity take with us as we head for the stars. Would any knowledge of the home planet survive hundreds maybe thousands of years? What would those stories reflect about the people who dreamed so audaciously to inspire a small war-like species to reach for new worlds?
So I dedicated a series of short stories to exploring the subject. At the end of one glorious summer of writing I had about 16 – 20 stories.
I picked the ten best of the bunch and Faery Tales of the Future was born.
Lots of editing and revision followed resulting in the collection now available for your wonderful readers to enjoy.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Many of my ideas come from dreams. I studied conscious dreaming while attending the Academy and have practiced it for many years. Often I’ll start a story in my sleep. The words will come along with some visuals. When I wake I have to begin writing it or the dream will continue to haunt me all day. I’ve used this practice to solve plot issues and discover new aspects of my story as well. The subconscious mind is fertile ground for new ideas. At times I won’t really remember the dream but once I sit down to write I discover that the “problem” I was having with some subject or chapter has resolved itself with the dreaming. Even providing new areas to develop.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
So many, too many to count here. My early influences were the classics, English Lit masters like Dickens, Shakespeare and Tolkien. Later the American science fiction authors duked it out with Mark Twain, Longfellow and EE Cummings for space on my overflowing bookshelf. Eclectic is still how my tastes run. Although I love science fiction and write in that genre I read widely in non-fiction, philosophy, political, hard science, biology, astronomy and physics journals – you know, just for fun…

What are you working on now?
My next book is titled Destiny Wars – it’s a mind bending, time warping science fiction thriller exploring the connection between memory and identity while the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

The next book after that looks to be an epic fantasy set in a wholly original world not yet touched by humans.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Still figuring that part out. The ideas for prose and essays spill out of my brain but SEO, social media engagement and platform building are all word-salad to me.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Perhaps it’s been said before but keep writing! Let your first draft and even your fifth be dreck if it must. Judgement too early in the process is the dream killer. Let it be messy, unfocused and poorly punctuated. All those things can and will be fixed but only if you finish that first draft!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I ever heard for writers and really any artist is to write down every idea in a notebook or journal because you never know when that kernel of an idea will spring forth into Divine inspiration.

What are you reading now?
Ursula K. LeGuin’s Catwings – I never read it! (i’m *not* crying, you’re crying… 😉

What’s next for you as a writer?
Figuring out the marketing part with the goal of making writing my full time occupation complete with a sustainable income – so nothing *too* big…

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?
4 books?!? That’s like telling a chocoholic they can only eat saltine crackers for the rest of their life!
I’d have to cheat and bring a Kindle (with a solar charger) loaded with thousands of books, 2 blank notebooks for journaling and a classic like the Iliad because if I’m stranded on a desert island then it’s obviously the beginning of an epic quest.

Author Websites and Profiles

Kate Phyre Website

Kate Phyre Amazon Profile

Kate Phyre’s Social Media Links

Facebook Profile

Twitter Account

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Author Interview Series

To discover a new author, check out our Featured Authors page. We have some of the best authors around. They are just waiting for you to discover them. If you enjoyed this writer’s interview feel free to share it using the buttons below. Sharing is caring!

If you are an author and want to be interviewed just fill out out Author Interview page. After submitting we will send it out in our newsletters and social media channels that are filled with readers looking to discover new books to read.

If you are looking for a new book to read check out our Featured Books Page.

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a prolific writer and publisher. I ran a small press and published 20 anthologies and six chapbooks. I have written four novels, a collection of short stories, and five chapbooks. Publishing excites me as much as storytelling. It is exhilarating to assist others in achieving their dreams. I sent out a quarterly magazine that listed mail art opportunities for five years.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Recently I finished the Gnome Stories series that took over a decade to complete. I was a single mom working full time and didn’t write consistently. Creative writing gave me an outlet to escape to another world. While working in IT, I often had long sessions installing software or some other tedious activity, and my mind would spin with fantasies.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I work in software quality assurance, and my workday can be hectic or slow depending on a process flow out of my control. I take every opportunity to use my time in front of multiple laptops to create, write, and publish. I am also a prolific, award-winning artist.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have a wide range of interests and have always been a prolific reader. I prefer literary, fantasy, and ancient texts like Rumi and Sun Tzu.

What are you working on now?
My goal for next year is to explore genres other than fantasy. I am currently working on a techno-thriller, a magical realism story about lycanthropes, a science fiction novel, and a poetry book about my dad, who passed away last year.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m hesitant to opine about the best way to promote books because I don’t seem to do it well. Without hard data, I would not know where the clicks came from if I was successful. I have tried Twitter and Facebook campaigns, author profiles on Amazon and Goodreads, my website, book promotions (free giveaways and .99 deals), editorial reviews, and social media posts. I haven’t had a lot of luck encouraging readers to opt-in to an email list.
Awesome Gang, N. N. Light Book Heaven, and BGSauthors are useful author promotion websites. Getting book reviews is my marketing pet peeve.
My latest out-of-the-box idea is to cross-promote cryptocurrency, a novel, and a comic book.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do not edit during the writing process. Concentrate on getting words on the paper, so you have something to edit. I marinate ideas to let the concepts and symbolism percolate in the deep recesses of my brain.
I used to write out everything longhand but finally switched over to typing on a laptop, which has made the writing and editing process quicker. Computer programs like Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and SmartEdit Pro can help you make quick gains when editing.
Everyone should use beta readers, developmental, copy, and line editors. Hire a proofreader. I have found a lot of inexpensive help on Fiverr. I have belonged to writers groups in the past but found they are more trouble than worth.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Set up a work schedule and stick with it. I usually work 3-8 hours a day, including weekends. I spend quite a bit of time promoting, editing, and thinking. Creating ebooks and audiobooks is also time-consuming.
Write what you want, and don’t worry about whether people will like it.

What are you reading now?
I am currently reading technical spec manuals for audiobook production. The last fiction novels I read were N. K. Jemisin’s The City We Became and Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have been exploring a cross-promotion idea between a techno-thriller novel and cryptocurrency. I didn’t know much about it but successfully set up my own coin and NFTs. I don’t know if my idea will pan out, but it was essential information to learn for my novel about a series of murders on a data-mining farm in the arctic.

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?
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
The Kraken, China Miéville
Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
The Essential Rumi

Author Websites and Profiles

Ashley Parker Owens Website

Ashley Parker Owens Amazon Profile

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Author Interview Series

To discover a new author, check out our Featured Authors page. We have some of the best authors around. They are just waiting for you to discover them. If you enjoyed this writer’s interview feel free to share it using the buttons below. Sharing is caring!

If you are an author and want to be interviewed just fill out out Author Interview page. After submitting we will send it out in our newsletters and social media channels that are filled with readers looking to discover new books to read.

If you are looking for a new book to read check out our Featured Books Page.

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written two non fiction books – A Haunted History of Atlanta and North Georgia, and Murder and Mystery in Atlanta. This is my third fiction book in my Darkside Chronicles Trilogy, featuring author and paranormal investigator Pearl Blackthorn.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called, Return To The Darkside. It is the sequel to A Walk On The Darkside and Beyond The Darkside. In this book, I wanted to explore the main character’s – Pearl Blackthorn – past and how it is influencing her present. She is in for lots of surprises, and not all of them pleasant.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
If I’m struggling with a scene, I think about it before I go to sleep. I invariably wake up during the night with a solution. Sometimes I can even remember dreaming about it.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love magical realism, particularly the writings of Italo Calvino. I also enjoy contemporary writers that merge genres such as Neil Gaiman, Dean Koontz, and Clive Barker.

What are you working on now?
I am currently working on a futuristic detective series and a Sci Fi screen play.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I like to reach out to my readers and talk to them personally, through physical or online readings, bookclubs, or soirees.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read everything you can and writer down everything you think of, even if it ends up in the wastebasket. It’s all part of building your writer’s muscles.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”
Cyril Connolly
[The New Statesman, February 25, 1933]

What are you reading now?
The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea, Grey Wolf Island by Tracsy Neithercott, and Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy by Carl Olson.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m still planning to finish my fantasy trilogy, Elsewhere, Otherwise, and Evermore. I would like to start a fiction podcast collaborating with other writers. If anyone out there is interested, let me 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?
I only need one – A Thousand Plateaus by Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.

Author Websites and Profiles
Corinna Underwood Website
Corinna Underwood Amazon Profile

Corinna Underwood’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live by Romans 8:28, believing that all things work together to accomplish God’s divine plan for His called out people. I serve in church ministries and is also a part of the group Pray Without Ceasing. I am a 2014 Jamaica Cultural Development Commission writing awardee with two published books. I have also served as a speaker at organizations and through my YouTube channel Heart to Him Ministries. I hold a Bachelor’s degree and work in the Maritime field. I was also named among the Ignite Caribbean 30 under 30, Emerging Caribbean American Leaders in Washington DC in 2018 and is the founder of Just Write Media Concepts and Just Ads & Jobs. I do not count it that I have apprehended but seek to forget those things which are behind, and is reaching for those things which are before me. I am pressing toward winning the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14). I enjoy being in nature and find the beach to be exceptionally calming.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My last book was Baptized & Broken – Finding Identity & True Love. I was inspired to share my journey from being a lost and broken woman to one who is determined to live a purpose-driven life in the hope that it will inspire others to do the same.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I am not sure if it’s unusual but I scribble ideas on a phone memo pad or email them to myself for future use.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I am particularly fond of the late Dr. Myles Munroe.

What are you working on now?
I just ended a series on Youtube surrounding my book Baptized & Broken – Finding Identity & True Love, called Dear Younger Me. We had some amazing guests who shared their stories. The new series starts on Friday, January 7 entitled Baptized & Broken – Teaching The Younger Women. It will be inspirational so I am working towards getting everything in order.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
As I am new to the promotional side of writing, I am utilizing social media to promote e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice for new writers is to stay true to what is on your heart. Do not change to fit the status quo. You are unique and so is your story, do not try to be like anyone else.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You were made to write, allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and just do it.

What are you reading now?
Praying Through The Promises of God by Archbishop Nicolas Duncan Williams and The Rules of Engagement by Dr. Cindy Trimm.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I am seeking to promote my newest book Baptized & Broken – Finding Identity & True Love and my first one, Heart To Him: Prayers & Poetry from an heir to the King and I want to complete a fasting and prayer guide.

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. The Bible

2. The Incredible Power of A Praying Woman by Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams

3. Understanding Your Place in God’s Kingdom: Your Original Purpose for Existence by Dr. Myles Munroe

4. Kingdom Woman: Embracing Your Purpose, Power, and Possibilities by Dr. Tony Evans and Chrystal Evans Hurst

Author Websites and Profiles
Akera Franklyn Website
Akera Franklyn Amazon Profile

Akera Franklyn’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I think my love for writing developed more than anything in the 4th grade. I remember my teacher used to have us students get up in front of the classroom and read a story we’d written. He pulled me aside once and told me he thought one day I’d be a great writer. My journey began in that classroom long ago and from there I wrote poems as a teen, tried my hand at a few novels in my twenties, worked for a local newspaper as a journalist for a time, and then became more of a serious writer in my thirties when my first mystery/romance book, Lady Gabriella was published. Ten years later, I wrote Cunja, a mystery/suspense/romance book with an element of horror. Cunja was published in 2012. My latest book, Killing Dreams is a paranormal/romance and was published by The Wild Rose Press just this year in September. Killing Dreams is book 1 of what I call the Spirit Walker Series. In between writing, I ran my own business for a few years and sold it. Now, I am writing full-time. No more distractions. No more life getting in the way. Finally! Just me, my laptop, and one great adventure after another.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest book is Buried Alive. It is book 2 of the Spirit Walker Series. And the name says it all. Yes, my heroine, Jenna Langely gets buried alive. It’s all up to my hero, Cole Rainwater to find out who is behind this unspeakable crime before the clock runs out for the woman he loves. The series was inspired by my editor at The Wild Rose Press. When I submitted Killing Dreams, I had no intention of turning the book into a series. In fact, I’d never tried my hand at a series before. She is the one who encouraged me to do so. I could not be happier that I agreed to take this plunge. It has been such a blast giving these two characters more adventures to live. Besides, if any of my characters ever deserved to live on in my imagination, it’s Jenna Langley and Cole Rainwater hands down.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’ve gotten out of bed at 4 am to write. My best ideas come to me early in the morning. I have to have a cup of hot tea sitting beside me. Don’t ask me why. I’ll go through five or six cups before I walk away from my laptop and take a break from writing for a while. Although I can’t listen to music or the TV while writing, I seem to be able to block out people talking around me. I know, it’s just weird.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I am a huge John Grisham fan. The man has quite the talent for drawing readers into his stories. I would say I have also been influenced by Dean Koontz and Sandra Brown.

What are you working on now?
I am so excited to be working on book 3 of the Spirit Walker Series, The Stolen. More trouble for poor Jenna. This time her psychic abilities have altered. Because of what happened in book 2 (of which I’m not about to let the cat out of the bag) she can now see dead people. Things take a bizarre turn when she is haunted by the murder victim of a sex trafficking ring. They get worse when Jenna finds herself abducted by these brutal people. She must rely on the guidance of a dead girl and her instincts to do what it takes to survive. I am roughly halfway through the manuscript now and hope to have it completed within the next month or two.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve found good success with running Facebook ads. Also, reaching out to newspapers and getting a feature story with one of their journalists. I like reaching out to libraries too. I occasionally run contests and give away cool prizes, like gift cards. I love involving my readers in the writing of my books. I ran a contest once asking my readers to pick the name of my hero. The one that chose the best name won a $50 Amazon gift card.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Not only is thick skin a requirement, but the ability to utilize constructive criticism is a must. Don’t get hurt when people knock your writing. That’s not to say you should take all criticism to heart, but use what makes sense to you as a tool to improve your writing. Before becoming a writer, be a reader. Much of what you can use to sharpen your writing skills are buried in the pages of your favorite books. That’s learning from the pros and it doesn’t cost more than the price of a book.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t get revenge, just write that person into your next book as the villain.

What are you reading now?
Nothing. Not that I don’t love to read, but when I’m in the middle of writing a book, reading one is too distracting.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m not sure where the Spirit Walker Series will take me. Book 3 could be it, or book 10 could be. This series seems to be writing itself. I’m just along for the ride. But when the final book has been written, I am certain it will be onward to the next series. I’m loving series writing. I’m just sorry I didn’t do this much earlier in my life. I know, I’m like a kid that discovered a new, awesome candy.

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?
Without a doubt, The Notebook from Nicholas Sparks is coming with me. I’m a hopeless romantic. But I also love me some horror, so, It, from Stephen King is also coming along for the duration. Then I’ll also pack The Testament, from John Grisham because Grisham made Nate O’Riley’s dangerous and adventurous trek through the Brazilian jungle so darn real I’ve not forgotten it to this day.

Author Websites and Profiles
Donnette Smith Website
Donnette Smith Amazon Profile

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