Awesome Author Interviews

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
This is my first book in my “How to Algorithm” series. After the book promotion phase, I will
beginning writing the second book in the series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my first book is “Discovering Your Human Algorithm | How to live with meaning and purpose.”

Much of my life I have been an interloper of other worlds and while passing through various worlds, I began to return to similar themes that brought me the most satisfaction. I’ve lived in 7 states, 5 countries, and growing up I attended 6 schools. In my personal and professional life, I’ve experienced wealth and poverty, marriage and divorce, the thrill of the Silicon Valley, the excitement of Hollywood, and the joys of travel. The themes that emerged had to do with athletics (college soccer player), adventure (traveler, 25 countries), academics (doctorate from colleges of humanities and science), art (Hollywood actor, 10 imdb.com credits), advocacy (Trustee for World Transplant Games Federation, wtgf.org), and a generalist. These ideas eventually coalesced into the 6As.

I’ve been inspired by many self-help authors in my life such as Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Flow), Scott H. Young (Ultralearning), Deborah Tannen (You Just Don’t Understand), and many many more. My Dad once said “being positive is the only practical way to live” so I wrote a guide, then a book in order to put that principle into practice. That guide became “Discovering Your Human Algorithm.”
During my PhD studies, the ideas began to galvanize into an identity. What

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
The most unusual habit I have is finding the last page in an article or book and reading it first. I’m fascinated with structure (or lack of it) and design thinking. Much of our life is guided by design so design, algorithm, structure, and incentives are the operations that advance us from A to B and so on. Mastering these paths serves us because we have control over them and they keep us focused in the moment.

Like many people, I have had to become more creative during the quarantine to keep myself happy and sane and for me focusing on the details of structure helps.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Flow), Scott H. Young (Ultralearning), Deborah Tannen (You Just Don’t Understand)

What are you working on now?
I produce 9 podcasts ranging from decision making (part of my doctoral research), to organ transplant stories, to “how human algorithms” which I define are successful strategies for 21st living.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesome Gang is strong. James Mayfield is too. Ask me again in a few months and I’ll tell you more.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Advice is the easiest thing to give, the hardest to take, and the weirdest to measure. But here is one piece of advice.

While beating yourself up, balance you’re thinking with positive self-talk.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It is the last line in my book and it came from my father “Being positive is the only practical way to live.”

What are you reading now?
Right now I’m reading blogs and how to articles on how to self-publish. I also read some academic articles on decision making, language, and spectrometers.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m ready to write a few more book for the “How to Algorithm” series to explore methods to live well now. In the next book, I plan to start by reading it out loud. It makes a Huge difference in readability.

My goals are to also explore structures that work for human cognition and design in the 21st century.

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?
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
Gone with the Wind
Man’s Search for Meaning
Some Poetry books

Author Websites and Profiles
Zachary Brooks Website
Zachary Brooks Amazon Profile

Zachary Brooks’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Well, I have oversight of a small non-profit organization that supports lower income people in Brooklyn, NY. I have a strong desire to help people improve thier quality of life.
I’ve learned that this is more than a job or financial literacy classes. People could stand to benefit from the two topics I cover, which are Leadership and Relationships

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is: The Seven Epaulettes of Leadership. Most people will ell you they are a leader, but few can define what it is. How can you recognize something if you can’t define it? How can you teach it to others? I’ll belabor the point by saying this: before you lead others, you must lead yourself. Again, if we can’t define leadership, how can you do it effectively?!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure this is unusual writing habits, but when I write I listen to a lot more music, and I have to walk. There’s something about movement that helps me to think

What authors, or books have influenced you?
The KJV of the Bible and Sun Tzu the Art of War

What are you working on now?
My latest project is scheduled for release in Jan of 2021
It’s in my niche, which is leadership and relationships. I have a better understanding of what writing is. I’m so much better at it now. And, more importantly, I have fun doing it. The first book was fraught with timelines.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Oh, I learned so much about promoting books. I use Awesome Gang, Amazon, Twitter, and an assortment of book clubs. I use twitter and my blog (abrams index) to test/introduce new ideas constantly. I’ve been know to leak some of my upcoming material into these platforms.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Come up with a title and chapters, if you can.
Keep a journal handy to jot down your thoughts – they will come at any time.
I use talk to text apps on my phone to record thoughts when I’m mobile.
Determine when and how you will move the reader through your narrative. Plan out when you want them to feel something, when you want them to recover/recoil, introduce a sub-topic, etc.

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

What are you reading now?
My own stuff. I don’t want to be influenced by anyone else’s work. I’m in a bubble right now

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m promoting The Seven Epaulettes of Leadership and planning out my 3rd book

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

Author Websites and Profiles
shawn abrams Website
shawn abrams Amazon Profile

shawn abrams’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
As a curator and historian for over 30 years, I have worked in many museums in Derbyshire and later in London. Over the years I specialised in everything from Victorian toys and memorabilia, to Royal Crown Derby and Militaria. I also worked free-lance for the History Channel USA as researcher, co-ordinator and interviewer on the award winning production ‘Secrets of War.’ However, my personal passion since a very early age has been the study of the Tudors, particularly Anne Boleyn and the court of King Henry VIII.
I did not begin writing seriously until around 2008, and originally wanted to write about Anne Boleyn at the English court. However, a great deal had already been written about this period, and I began to look at her earlier life from around 1500 to 1521. Since research as a curator has always been my passion, I wanted to write as factual a novel as I could and spent years visiting sites such as Blickling in Norfolk, Hever Castle, Rochford Manor and the palace of Margaret of Austria, in Mechelen, just outside Brussels. It was here that Anne was sent as a young maid-of-honour, and I was honoured to gain access to rooms not normally open to the public. The result of my research was ‘The Falcon’s Rise,’ my first book. I have followed it up with part two ‘The Falcon’s Flight’ published 19 May 2020. This second book covers Anne’s time spent at the French court, and ends as she is about to return to England. I had a wonderful time in France researching this book and seeing the places Anne herself knew. I hope you enjoy reading about these place, too.

In my spare time, I love travelling, rambling and visiting historic houses, as well as constantly reading and researching the Tudor period.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is The Falcon’s Flight and it is part two of my first book, The Falcon’s Rise. I wanted to write something that other authors hadn’t concentrated on, which is Anne Boleyn’s early life, and I felt inspired to tell her little known story of the years before she met King Henry VIII.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No, but I tend to start writing at the end of the afternoon, when my other jobs are done and I’m physically tired. My endless energy makes me want to get out and about during the day, as I find it impossible to sit still!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Definitely Jean Plaidy, Rosemary Hawley Jarman, and Alison Weir. They ignited my love of history most certainly.

What are you working on now?
I am researching and mulling over the thought of writing book three, The Falcon’s Fall, just to complete the trilogy. But I need a new angle for the very well known story of Anne Boleyn meeting King Henry and becoming Queen of England. And, of course, her grisly end.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think Twitter is amazing, but also all the fantastic Tudor and Anne Boleyn websites and FaceBook pages out there. It’s really great having an interested audience in all things Anne Boleyn!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes, but only what I’ve learnt through making mistakes. So, here goes:
Firstly, get hold of a copy of The Writers and Artists Yearbook for publishing advice etc. It is incredibly useful, with lots of contact addresses and practical tips for new writers.

Next, I would advise that you write because you just have to tell your story, not in the hope of making money. There are no shortcuts and you cannot short change your readers by trying to get a book out there quickly. It might take you years, but just go at your own pace and don’t rush it.

Write about what you know about, or are familiar with. This will give your book authenticity, so read and research at every opportunity.

Think about who is going to read your book and where it will sit in the market. Be very clear who your audience will be.

Write every day. Even if it’s just a description of something, or writing out a favourite piece of prose. It keeps your mind trained on the art of writing and using words, and I found it important. Don’t worry if you have a bad writing day, do something else, but don’t leave it too long before returning to your book. I found it much harder to pick up where I’d left off after a few weeks’ break. It’s really easy to slip out of a routine.

Edit, edit, and edit again. If you are planning on sending your manuscript to a publisher, your work must be as near perfect as possible. Nothing puts people off more than shoddy punctuation, spelling, and grammar. I had the annoying habit of spelling people’s names and places differently, and I hadn’t even noticed. Make sure you keep everything consistent.
You can, of course, pay for professional editing, but there are also good grammar/spelling programmes on the internet to run your work through. Some mistakes will slip through, but just make it as good as you can get.

Network. Social media and the internet are full of lots of writers groups where you can get support and advice. They are always happy to advise and help new writers if possible. If you don’t like online groups, try your local community. Ask if your local book club would mind reading your book. Don’t be afraid, just ask!

Finally, try not to get discouraged. Your writing will not be like anyone else’s, because it is unique to you, so don’t compare yourself to other authors. They all started somewhere. And if you give it your very best shot, the effort will pay off.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
To write in your own style. Don’t worry about other authors, just write in a way that is unique to you.

What are you reading now?
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. I love her work.

What’s next for you as a writer?
If book two is well received, it will encourage me to write book three. After that, I’m not sure, but again I’d want to write about someone not written about very much.

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?
If we say that the Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare are a given, my must have books would be:
We Speak No Treason, by Rosemary Hawley Jarman, The Oxford Anthology of Great English Poetry, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.

Author Websites and Profiles
Natalia Richards Website
Natalia Richards Amazon Profile

Natalia Richards’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I currently have 5 published suspense/thriller/mysteries with my 6th one coming out later this year. Reading and writing has always been a part of my life. Besides that I love being outdoors, hiking is one of my favorite things to do. I love exploring nature and all of her hidden gems, especially finding waterfalls.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Tainted Waters is my latest suspense/thriller/mystery. It was inspired by a camping trip from hell. It was one of those weekends that started out amazing but ended up in disaster. We were camping at a lake which we thought was amazing. Turns out there was a reason there weren’t many campers there. Because of all that happened, it gave me the idea to have a lake where only a few people live but someone realizes that the owners are starting to die off. Then it comes to light, what do they really know about each other? And who would benefit from the other’s deaths?

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know if they are unusual but I don’t tend to write my book in order. I write the chapters that come to mind and then figure out where they fit in the story. I am also a panster-plotter. I write then I plot and then I write.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
There are many. I would say that Robert Ludlum, Sandra Brown, JRR Tolkien, Stephen R Donaldson, were some of my favorite authors and ones who taught me how to bring a story to life and some of the different things that make a book compelling.

What are you working on now?
I have just finished writing another book, Fractured Lines, which will be out later this summer. And I have started writing a suspense/thriller/mystery series. I am planning on book one being out in early 2021.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Email list and advertising have been the best way I’ve found to promote my books.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write. Write. Write. Then don’t be scared to cut what you’ve written. Keep your focus on writing a good story, not on whether you are the one to write it or whether it is good or not. Reach out to other authors and writers to get tips that can help you. It is an amazing group of resourceful and helpful people.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t edit as you write and don’t stop to do research, put a xxx in places where you know you need to add or do research but keep writing and come back to that later.

What are you reading now?
I just finished reading A Struggle for Independence by P.M. Terrell.
I just bought 4 more books so will have to choose one to read next.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To keep writing fiction and nonfiction. I also write nonfiction books (Glenna Mageau). I might venture into a new genre. We’ll see.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
1. How to build a boat.
2. What is edible on a deserted island
3. The White Gold Wielder – it’s a long series and its been years since I read it so it might be a good distraction.
4. How to write books on tree bark

Author Websites and Profiles
Maggie Thom Website
Maggie Thom Amazon Profile
Maggie Thom Author Profile on Smashwords

Maggie Thom’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born in Zimbabwe and moved with my family to South Africa in 1978. After matriculating from school, I was conscripted to serve for two years in the South African Defence Force. There I trained and operated as a Combat Medic on the volatile border between Namibia and Angola and was awarded the Pro Patria Medal in 1990. In my downtime I would find a shady spot to escape into books and dabble at writing science fiction and fantasy. Back in civvy street, married and working, I periodically and unsuccessfully tried to write.
In 2004, I emigrated to England with my family and in 2012 I sat down to plot yet another book idea. This time I focused on my deep interest in ancient history. By the end of that year I had written and edited Warhorn, the first title in the Sons of Iberia series. Since then I have written three more titles in the series. I have also written two novellas set in the ancient past and completed my late father-in-law’s manuscript, which was a contemporary thriller. All told, I have now written seven titles.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is titled Offgrid Boaters, One Couples Alternative Nomad Life on a 25ft Yoghurt Pot. In 2018, my wife and I bought and moved onto a cabin cruiser boat. Offgrid Boaters is a look back at how we managed to do it with zero boating know-how and all the funny, terrifying, and amazing things that we have experienced. The paperback will be available to order from most indie and high street bookstores as well as online as an ebook. The yoghurt pot reference is not the name of our boat, but what steel narrowboaters call any glass-fibre vessels.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Sitting on the deck of a boat in England while writing about long-dead Roman legionaries and Iberian warriors. Constantly praying that the sun will shine so that my single solar panel will keep my laptop running. Other than the challenges of off-grid life, I’m a typical plotter rather than pantser, and get very moody when life gets in the way of writing.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I would say James A. Michener’s epic tomes opened my mind to the allure of exotic cultures and the history of people rather than nations. Bryce Courtney’s books put me in the skin of ordinary people facing great adversity, and Bernard Cornwell’s fighting heroes have shown me the thrust and parry of battle.

What are you working on now?
I am working on the fifth title in the historical fiction series, Sons of Iberia. It is set during the Second Punic War and gives readers an insight into the ancient Iberians of Spain and how they fared during the war between Carthage and Rome. Instead of the typical Carthaginian of Roman viewpoint, the central characters are a mix of Iberians, Gauls, and Africans, giving a voice to people so often forgotten when talking of this period.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My go-to websites are my own and goodreads.com. After that, I rely on metadata on shopping platforms to put my books in front of people looking for the kind of tales I write.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be stubborn and be determined. Editing can wait until you are done. You need to build momentum to carry you through to the final page and you can’t do that if you’re fiddling with yesterday’s writing. Join groups and associations. I am an author member of the Alliance of Independent Authors (Alli) and an associate member of the Association of Independent Authors. Good luck!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The sandpit analogy. The first draft is the sandpit and all I need to do is put the sand in. I only build the sandcastle once the sandpit is full.

What are you reading now?
Antonin Varenne’s Retribution Road and AC Cobble’s Quill: The Cartographer Book 1

What’s next for you as a writer?
Audiobooks. I want to make my material available to listeners and I am exploring options including narrating the shorter books myself. Once I have done that, I plan to get my books translated into Spanish.

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?
Okay, let’s see. Some history, some DIY, some comedy and some cooking. Yes, that should keep me busy.
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
• The Complete Sailor: Learning the Art of Sailing by David Seidman
• The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson and
• The Complete Coconut Cookbook: 200 Gluten-Free, Grain-Free and Nut-Free Vegan Recipes Using Coconut Flour, Oil, Sugar and More by Camilla Saulsbury

Author Websites and Profiles
Glenn Bauer Website
Glenn Bauer Amazon Profile

Glenn Bauer’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
From the time I was a little girl, I dreamed of being a writer. When the economy collapsed back in 1987, I lost my banking job with one hour notice.

My first reaction was to cry…but by the time I boarded the train home, I was smiling from ear to ear. I had made the decision to finally pursue a writing career.

I wrote my first book, standing at the keyboard with a colicky baby in a snugly pouch. And that was before stand-up desks were all the rage.

People might hate me for this, but it was accepted by the first publisher I proposed it to (Focus on the Family) and became an instant best-seller. Of course, my life hasn’t been all sunshine and lollipops.

Quite the opposite. And I think part of the reason women resonate with my writing is because I’m honest about my journey. From being sexually abused as a child to ending up in an extremely violent marriage to a man from the Middle East.

Plenty of things have come to shake my confidence. But I keep returning to the One who can never be shaken.

Through all the drama in my private life, God has truly blessed my 30 books, which have now sold more than 1.5 million copies around the world.

That’s honestly just mind-boggling to me.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called God-Confidence: The Courage You Need for the Life You Want.

It’s a 21-Day Devotional that’s an easy read…but also, I hope, thought-provoking and encouraging at the same time.

I was the Queen of Insecurity. Coming out of a background of abuse and addiction, I had zero self-confidence. So, really for my own healing, I wanted to see if the Bible had answers for someone like me.

And of course, it did.

I think women will be greatly encouraged by the many insecure people God used in the Bible, even though they didn’t have a great track record or reason to be self-confident.

He takes us as He finds us.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Actually, I do. This will sound crazy, but I write super-fast. Like lightning speed. Half the time, I don’t even think about what I’m writing, that’s how quickly my hands are flying across the keyboard.

I often tell young people the story of how I learned to type 120 words per minute. All of my dreams had come crashing down around me. I was forced to drop out of college, walk away from all of my scholarships, and settle for a job as a part-time temporary typist.

I thought my life was over. But actually, I learned a vital skill that has served me incredibly well for the past three decades.

I wrote an international bestseller, Becoming a Vessel God Can Use, in 4-5 days. Most of my books take me two weeks or less.

So whatever job you have, give it all you’ve got! You never know what skill you might learn that God will use later.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I adore anything by Andrew Murray. His book, Humility, absolutely rocked my world. Interesting side note: I found it on a sale table for $1…so bargain books have the power to change lives.

Right now, I’m reading anything I can get my hands on by Derek Prince.

So basically, I love to read dead British men who were born outside of England…go figure!

What are you working on now?
My next book is called What To Do When You Don’t Know What God Is Doing. It grew out of my experiences living on the mission field.

My books have opened doors for me to live and work in 40 nations, often among refugees or internally-displaced people. Usually, I’m in places were easy answers don’t work.

I think there are lessons I’ve learned that can apply to anyone who’s left wondering, “Where is God and what on earth is He doing?”

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur is super-smart, so I follow him closely. Actually, he’s the one who led me to the Awesome Gang, which is pretty awesome, right?

Do you have any advice for new authors?
For sure. WRITE.

Seriously, just wake your precious little self up an hour earlier than everyone else in your household and write. It doesn’t matter if you publish those morning scribbles. Frankly, I don’t. But writers write, so if you want to be a writer, do a lot of writing.

When it’s time to write a book, I beg you — in the name of all that is good and holy — write from a solid, well-structured outline. That way, each chapter is about one thing and one thing only. Your English teacher was right.

I’m amazed how many authors — especially self-published ones who fail to hire a serious editor — just keep saying the same thing over and over again in every chapter.

The smartest thing you’ll ever do for your career is to attend writers’ conferences. First of all, the air is electric. You’ll walk around mumbling, “My peeps, my peeps, I finally found my peeps.” It’s glorious.

And the networking is amazing. I met an acquisitions editor at a writer’s conference almost twenty years ago and we still work together.

I do offer a free guide, 10 Steps to Write Your Book…in Just a Matter of Days. It’s available at www.donnapartow.com/write-fast

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The opening words to Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life spring to mind: “It’s not about you.”

Find out why you are on this planet and live your life for something larger than yourself. I truly believe we are never fully alive until we are walking out our purpose.

I think each of us was put on the planet, at this exact moment in human history, for a very specific reason. What could be more important than finding out what that is?

What are you reading now?
Time for true confessions?

I’m always reading about a dozen books at any given time. I’m studying Geobasics in the Land of the Bible in preparation for a Masters Degree in Middle Eastern Studies. I’m devouring Russell Brunson’s newest, Traffic Secrets. Don’t Burn This Book by Dave Rubin is a slightly-irreverent hoot. And I just downloaded Derek Prince’s Self-Study Bible Course.

Is that eclectic enough?

If not, I can mention that I’m listening to The Success Principles on Audible!

What’s next for you as a writer?
I haven’t done a lot of writing over the past decade. I’ve been busy teaching online classes and developing my annual Lifestyle Freedom Event (now in its 8th year). And really, most of my time — my heart — is on the mission field. I was overseas for 9 months last year.

COVID suddenly has me grounded. And I’m taking the hint and have made it my goal to write at least two books in 2020.

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 is a given, of course. Then the Complete Works of Andrew Murray and E.M. Bounds’ On Prayer. Then maybe a book to help me finally learn Spanish!

Author Websites and Profiles
Donna Partow Website
Donna Partow Amazon Profile

Donna Partow’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hey, my name is Katherine Lindsay, and I’m 24 years old! By day I’m a medical assistant, by night, I’m a writer, and in between, I’m a dog mom! I have been writing since eight years old and written my first book when I was twelve. Fun Fact: I am still writing my very second novel in which it has been through ten revisions since I was fifteen years old. Hoping to put it out for my birth month this year giving it a ten-year special. In total, I have written about five books, twenty in storage half-written and ready to be done, and one actually published. If you couldn’t tell, my brain only thinks about stories. Too bad, I can’t write them, as fast as they come. One by one they will get done…hopefully! LOL

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is “The Way You Kiss Me” the first in its series. This book has been a long time coming as I wrote the full version back in 2018. But I was so invested in the characters and story that I wanted to break it up into different parts. The whole idea came to me from a song I heard at three in the morning. As soon as I heard the song, I saw the book like a movie in my head from start to finish!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have to listen to lofi hip-hop when I write. I don’t know why but it gives me inspiration and fuels my brain to keep going. I also love to map out the story before I write, so it kind of guides me through the chapters, flawlessly. I don’t know if they are unusual but it’s my traditions I like to think I do.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Nicholas Sparks, John Green, Nora Roberts, Rebecca Lim, James Patterson, and much more!

What are you working on now?
I am working on my next book hoping to publish it by July! It’s called Written in the Stars! That was an exclusive! Lol, haven’t formally said this anywhere else. But I’m excited this book is going to leave the reader guessing until the end, so it’s quite thrilling! Just a different book to write, so I’m taking my time.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
New to self-publishing so haven’t got a clue! But I do have a website in which I write blogs, and I love using Instagram! Twitter I’m getting used too, and Facebook is a whole different ball game!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes!! I wrote this on twitter the other day and thought it’d be perfect to share!
“You live, you learn, you conquer. No one is going to stop you from chasing your dreams. If you are passionate about it, you’re not going to lose faith. Believe in your craft so others can too”

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Follow your dreams, or you’ll spend the rest of your life working for someone who did

What are you reading now?
I just bought the Crazy Rich Asians book trilogy! I love the movie but haven’t got around to reading the books, so I’m excited!

What’s next for you as a writer?
The mind of a writer never stops, so I’m jumping back into writing my next book for July release!

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 art of racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.
The bend in the road by Nicholas Sparks
NYPD red series by James Patterson

Author Websites and Profiles
Katherine Lindsay Website

Katherine Lindsay’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
“Down the Rabbit Hole: A Memoir of Abuse, Addiction and Recovery” is my first published novel. I am currently working on it’s follow up “Voicemails From My Sister” which goes into depth about my sister, who suffers from Schizoaffective disorder as the result of having been fed drugs and alcohol in utero.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Down the Rabbit Hole: A Memoir of Abuse, Addiction and Recovery” chronicles of my tumultuous upbringing, my dive into addiction and my decision to recover. I was inspired to share my story to help people raised in dysfunctional families, addicts at the bottom of their barrel, and those struggling with triggered thinking.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write in the notes section of my iPad while lying down in bed. I usually write a whole story at once. For “Down the Rabbit Hole” it truly felt like God wrote through me.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
“Drinking: A Love Story” by Caroline Knapp
Everything by David Sedaris
“More, Now, Again” by Elizabeth Wurtzel
“A Piece of Cake” by Cupcake Brown

What are you working on now?
“Voicemails From My Sister,” which explores my sister Sibby’s developmental disorders, resulting from her being fed cocaine and alcohol while in the womb.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
KDP and Amazon’s sponsored advertising

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Listen to and follow the advice of Dave Chesson and Kindlepreneur

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Follow your instincts & don’t believe everything you hear or read

What are you reading now?
“Yonder: A Southern Haunting: Book 1” by LeeAnne Hansen

What’s next for you as a writer?
continue to promote “Down the Rabbit Hole: A Memoir of Abuse, Addiction and Recovery” and continue writing “Voicemails From My Sister”

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
“A Piece of Cake,” and the Ramona Quimby series

Author Websites and Profiles
Kate Russell Website
Kate Russell Amazon Profile

Kate Russell’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written two books so far: Fairalon an MG/YA Fantasy under the pen name T.J. Roberts, and my current book: The Promise, Adult Sci Fi.
These are actually my fourth and fifth books, the other three never published.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Promise (Adult Military Sci Fi)
I like to create 3d images and animation and was thinking about “the movie I would like to see.” I was getting pretty tired of the PC pablum I had been seeing, so I started writing The Promise. The Promise is the name of the first star ship, able to traverse the universe in the blink of an eye.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Unusual? That implies there are usual habits which I can’t speak to. I DO like to make the images for the scenes I write about. That is probably unusual, as it takes a long time to create them. It helps me see the scene and any problems and improvements I can make to the writing. I included the images with Fairalon which most people liked.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Isaac Asimov’s “I Robot”

I was fortunate enough to meet Harlan Ellison at a showing of A Boy and His Dog at the U of AZ. He signed copy of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream for me. 🙂 That was really a cool experience. He also talked about the book and the movie. Awesome!

What are you working on now?
I’m working on two sequels: Return To Fairalon (temp title) and The Promise 2 (untitled)
Fantasy and Sci Fi

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
At this point, I’d have to say Amazon. 80% of the market is there so ads placed there seem to work best.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep your day job. I like to compare writing books to writing a hit song. There are many talented musicians and song writers. Some actually write a hit song. Very very few actually become successful song writers. Very few get recording contracts with big labels. Both are very difficult fields so brace yourself for a bumpy ride. If you need to eat from your books you’ll probably lose a ton of weight.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best thing I read was on Facebook. I wish I could give credit to the author. It was about reviews: Stonehenge only got a 4.5 rating for “too few stones.” That is my shield.

It hurts when someone slams your work, but you have to remember “too few stones.” New authors should remember that.

I don’t like certain types of books, but I probably would never give a review of less than 4 stars simply because I know what the author went through to put it out there.

What are you reading now?
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Making Comics by Scott Mcloud

What’s next for you as a writer?
I “might” create a graphic novel of The Promise. I’ve already created a lot of images.
Currently the two sequels are taking up a lot of my time so that’s on the back burner.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
How to Survive on a Desert Island by Anyone
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Shipbuilding for Idiots

Author Websites and Profiles
Maxx Powr Website
Maxx Powr Amazon Profile
Maxx Powr Author Profile on Smashwords

Maxx Powr’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a newly published 18 year old author living on Vancouver Island Canada. Ever since I could write, my life goal was to one day have my own published book and become an author. This past week I was fortunate enough to have finally published my very first poetry book available on Amazon and Kindle. My childhood dreams are slowly coming true and the gratitude I feel for the kind feedback I have received after publishing at a young age makes me want to spread the word that anyone’s wildest childhood dreams are capable of coming true with hard work.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book “how do i say this the right way” is a collection of poetry and prose divided into “chapters” entailing a shared emotion, and those of which we often struggle to find the right word to describe, but (I believe) are captured in the poems. My book focuses on the importance of words and how we must choose what we say with pride and with integrity.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I carry this one specific white notebook that is so beat up at this point with me 24/7 because the minute I have an idea I have to immediately write it down. And it’s not the same as writing it in my phone because something about pen to paper makes it that much more special.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Shakespeare is my all time favourite thing to read. When I feel a lack of creativity or writer’s block I will take one of my copies of a Shakespeare play and translate it as I read it, making notes and circling pieces of wording that I find go together so beautifully. I also read the Four Agreements as I was beginning to write my book and the emphasis that the Four Agreements had on being conscious of your words and taking pride in how you speak really inspired me to apply that to my writing and my life as a whole because I feel the way we speak and interact with others is a domino effect on other aspects of our lives.

What are you working on now?
I don’t want to give too much away but I am currently working on my second book, a sort of self-help/autobiography/comedic piece of a period in my life where I struggled, but came out okay, (or so I like to think.)

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I personally like to advertise over social media with my own posts as I feel it receives a more personal response as well as the ability to share directly with my loved ones.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write write write. Write everyday, rewrite, change your location where you write, and have faith in what you write. You are capable of the end goal!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I have ever heard came from a close family member, (and this actually is touched on quite a bit in my upcoming book,) and that is that “it’s okay not to know.” It is totally okay not to know what you are doing in the current moment. Life is so uncertain and changes every second. But as long as you are doing something, it’s okay not to know where you’re heading. As soon as I applied this to my writing journey is when I saw results, because I was so focused on and end goal that it was almost getting in the way of the present moment. I wanted to write and I wanted to publish but I couldn’t publish without writing. So I just wrote, and that was it. I let go of the pressures of “knowing what I wanted” and I was able to create what I wanted and get to the end when I get there, (if that makes sense.)

What are you reading now?
Right now I am reading anything in my general vicinity that I can get my hands on. I’m not picky as a reader, every book and author has something to share and something to influence. The other day I read a biology textbook because it was the closest book to me at the time, and while it wasn’t grippingly entertaining, I learned some stuff.

What’s next for you as a writer?
More writing. More writing and going with the flow of things. I am currently working on my second project of which I hope to complete in the near future but who’s to say a massive burst of creative energy doesn’t come along and put my current plans on hold?

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 Four Agreements
2. Shakespeare’s Tragedies
3. The Secret
4. a Dictionary

Author Websites and Profiles
Tara Kruyt Amazon Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have now written 4 books. It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation and Feel Great Again is about how I got autoimmune disease, didn’t want a life of pain and pill, learned to control my stress, and eliminated hundreds of toxins from my life returning me to relative wellness. My second book is a Victory Journal and Gratitude Log so that I can write down my daily victories since I first got sick, the books I have published, I have been a guest on 150 podcasts, I went back to school at 67 and became a health coach, I am a speaker and have now participated in 17 summits. I then published a desktop guide to 2-3 minute stress busters to do through the day to let the steam off. Its a mini guide to keep close to improve productivity and relieve stress before it becomes chronic. My latest book published May 18, 2020 and it Feeling Good, Living Low Toxin in Community and Everyday Life with all my tips in maintaining a low toxin existence.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Feeling Good Living Low Toxin in Community and Every Day Life. It is never too late to start making health-conscious choices.
Take care of your body and teach your child to follow your example so that you all have a happy place to live.
Both of my books are available at Heavenlytreepress.com. They are also both available on Amazon. https://heavenlytreepress.com/ https://bit.ly/cherylsbooks
Looking for the magic pill in the time of the Pandemic
I understand that you are scared that your body will not be able to resist the virus. I understand that you terrified that your family might get this disease.
Are you already immune vulnerable? How frustrating it is to feel lousy all the time and have pain and be scared. And now, in this time, are you losing hope that there is a solution?
Imagine finding the “magic” pill that will erase your misery and keep you and your loved ones safe. Imagine feeling great and knowing that you are living a life that best protects you and your family. Imagine not worrying anymore about your health.
Is there a magic pill?
It is not a pharmaceutical. It is not an over the counter drug.
Protect your body and your family by implementing the tips in a new book Feeling Good Living Low Toxin in Community and Everyday Life. Boost your immune system today so that you and your family have a healthy defense system and feel great.
What creates health?
You will discover that Its eating whole organic foods of all the colors of the rainbow and you will learn why. Its eliminating processed and fast foods from your diet. Whether you cook at home, go out to restaurants, go to friends or family’s homes, or travel, its staying true to low toxin real food and a low toxin life.
This book will show you how.
It is lowering your stress with short exercises and finding joy through gratitude. Its practicing daily self-care.
It is raising healthy children in a country where over 50% have chronic illness. It is keeping them safe from disease.
Its discovering how to be a great pet guardian in a toxic world.
Try my tips for 90 days and feel the difference.
Health must start with healthy habits.
Utilizing these tips will allow your body to return to feeling good and then to celebrate. As you learn to listen to your body, it will make implementing these tips so worthwhile. And living a healthy life solves a multitude of health issues and gives your body a strong foundation to thrive. These tips will boost your defense system and keep you, your children and your pets healthy.
If you have a chronic illness, incorporating healthy habits will be a giant step towards wellness. Implementing these tips will fortify you and your family against pandemic diseases and chronic illnesses. And best of all, you will start to feel great again.
Do you want to grow old with dementia and illness and pain, or do you want to thrive until the end? These tips will allow you to grow old with grace and to prosper.
I have a chronic illness, and these are all keys to health that I discovered and implemented to return to health.
My first book, It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation and Feel Great Again pulls the curtain open and exposes where all the toxins that are ruining our health exist and what to replace them with. That book has won 14 awards.
But living low toxin is more complicated. We do not live in an isolated bubble; we live in a community. We do not choose the ingredients used in restaurants, and we want to enjoy socializing with friends and family who are still eating the Standard American Diet. We travel and have choices for food that we did not prepare and do not control.
Feeling Good, Living Low Toxin in Everyday Life gives you the blueprint to maintain a healthy life.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
If I run into writers block I set that chapter aside until a later time, and continue forward on a different chapter

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Dr. Joseph Pizzorno, the definitive expert on toxins. Deanna Minich, PhD, and her spectrum of information about eating the rainbow, Suzy Cohen, a pharmacist with an Ask The Pharmacist National column who is also a functional practitioner, Dr. Mark Hyman, one of the leading functional MDs.

What are you working on now?
I just started my own podcast on Voice America It Feels Good to Feel Good Futureproof Your Health, and I just opened my own publishing company Heavenly Tree Press and also have a website to support it in addition to my health coaching website, cherylmhealthmuse.com

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
HeavenlyTreePress.com Facebook pages and groups, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked In

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you want to write a book, sit down and just start to write. Its not written in stone and you can go back and revise it to be the words you are looking for to tell your story and message.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Own your own life, whether its your business, or your health, you have the power. Don’t give that away to anyone.

What are you reading now?
How Not to Die by Michael Grieger

What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to do a cookbook, It Feels Good to Eat the Rainbow, and I want to put together a childrens program. I am concerned that 53% of our children have a chronic illness.

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?
Far Pavillions, anything from Dickens, any good mystery

Author Websites and Profiles
Cheryl Meyer Website
Cheryl Meyer Amazon Profile

Cheryl Meyer’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My life and career have changed several times. I was born in Edmonton, awarded the Rutherford Gold Medal in English for my BA in English Honours,; have an MA in English (Shakespeare), both from the University of Alberta. I have taught at three different universities in English, Philosophy, and Theatre; trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London; later went to the Laban Art of Movement Studio and Ecole Jacques Lecoq, and have acted and directed professionally in Canada and acted in England. Because of Company One Theatre, which I created, I was invited to teach at the National Theatre School for three years.

What has the above to do with my writing? When I was in the Department of Drama at the University of Alberta in the ’90s, inspired by my wife’s Norwegian ancestry, I wrote a play about Henrik Ibsen and his wife Suzanna called The Eagle and the Tiger—their nicknames for each other. But in studying Ibsen, I found that until he was forty, he had written in poetry—plays, poems, even letters—and so I decided to write the play poetically. But you don’t just start to write poetry; I had to learn the craft, and I wrote all sorts of occasional poetry for weddings, births, deaths, occasions, and then other poetry, and then wrote the play. And I have continued to write poetry ever since.

Books I have written or have poetry in A Weathering of Years
On the River of Time:
Book One: Odysseus
Book Two: Spenser
Book Three: Archer (forthcoming)
Recollections of Malcolm Forsyth
Other works: six children’s poems set to music by Malcolm Forsyth
Commission for a poem for Forsyth’s Ballad of Canada

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Spenser: Book Two of the trilogy On the River of Time
The inspiration for this book—and the other books of the epic trilogy—took place twenty-seven years ago. My son and I were touring the Fringe festivals on the prairies with a one-man production of the first two books of the Iliad, translated by the English poet Christopher Logue as Kings. We had just arrived in Winnipeg when I discovered that I had run out of science fiction to read. I went to an old bookstore near the Fringe and by accident discovered The Collected Poems of Edmund Spenser, and a forty-year-old tinge of guilt afflicted me—I had bits of Spenser’s poetry when I was in English Honours, but had avoided as much of his epic The Fairie Queene as I could manage. And so I bought the book and I read the epic. But I also read his biography and discovered to my horror that when he was writing the epic, which deals with the virtues, simultaneously he was writing a treatise essentially advocating the genocide of the Irish. Here was one of the greatest English poets, speaking with the tongue of angels, who was holding the virtues and genocide in his mind together.
And the last twenty-seven years have been spent trying to figure out why, and how to write about it. The poetic epic trilogy is what has been created as a result. The three books cover 3,000 years, from the time of Odysseus to the last four months of Spenser’s life in the sixteenth century, to Ray Archer, and actor/director of this century, and their journeys and struggles. Odysseus was published several years ago, and Spenser is the latest one published. The third is still in draft.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Oh yes. I do have a desk. But I have written in hotel rooms; in bedrooms where I stay in my children’s houses; on their kitchen and dining room tables; on a bench outside a restaurant at Disney World, waiting for my family to come; in the stands, while watching my grandchildren skateboard; on the ledge of a window in the vestibule of a cinema. When the need is there, you fulfill it.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Shakespeare, of course. But there was one incident when I was a teen that I have never forgotten. It was a week or so before I wrote my Grade XII provincial exams, and I happened to read a play by George Bernard Shaw. It astonished me with the power and imagination of his language, of his sense of irony, and of his extraordinary gift for words. I was enchanted by the beauty of the words, the power of the vision, and I immediately got and read, night and day, all fifty-four of his plays. I don’t know how I passed the exams. But it taught me the beauty of the sound of words, their arrangement, what they sprang in the mind. And that has stayed with me to this day.

I can’t say what other authors or their books have influenced me. Over the past thirty years, I have read more poetry, from the Greeks up to the present, and before that, I was deeply affected by the plays of Sean O’Casey and Bertolt Brecht and Ibsen, and the poetry of Yeats and Seamus Heaney.

What are you working on now?
On the third book of the trilogy, Archer. This one has been the hardest to write. In the first part, Archer takes his company across the country performing King Lear in a mask, and while he goes he finishes making notes for a huge production that will portray the entire history of this country; in the second part, the work is finished and performed again across the country; and in the third, it is invited to be performed in Irish festivals, where things happen. It is almost finished. A few revisions, some possible cuts, and it is done.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I do have a website (www.carlhare.ca) and a Facebook page. I also do readings for Book Clubs and other organizations.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Whatever your idiom, work in its craft until imagination can have a form in which to express.
Let your eyes watch, your ears hear, taste, smell, touch. Be sensitive to your inner self. Explore deeply that about which you wish to speak. Work until you can find your own voice, which may not come at first, but be patient.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It was not something I heard, but something I saw. I had written a paragraph to introduce an essay. My professor, using his red pen, stroked out most of the words to expose the one sentence that was needed there.

What are you reading now?
Between the many other things enveloping my life, The Greek Poets: Homer to the Present.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have three books at various stages of completion.

Sleepywing and other poems for younger children is waiting for my artist to finish the wonderful pictures he has created for the poems.

Crannies of my Folded Days is a book by my wife about a Norwegian immigrant family on a prairie farm that I am editing.

Clara: Life, Death, Love is a book about my late wife and our lives.

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?
Shakespeare’s Plays and Poems, and whatever I fancied before I was stranded.

Author Websites and Profiles
Carl Hare Website
Carl Hare Amazon Profile

Carl Hare’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I hate boring expected answers to questions like these. It’s easy to tell you that American Blasphemer is my debut novel but it’s not so easy to, “tell you about myself.”

It’s impossible through words to convey a sense of oneself to strangers but I’ve found that, much like creating a character in a story, it’s best to show, not tell.

My name is John Gillen. I’ve read the Bible thirteen times, but I don’t go to church. I’m obsessed with Bob Dylan and I’ve seen Raging Bull over forty times. It’s 4:19 a.m. and I haven’t decided if I’m going sleep tonight or not.

Once I publicly accused the Chief Clerk of The United States Supreme Court of participating in Satan worship and he told me to go fuck myself.

I’ve been stabbed three times in my life and I know a lot about recreational and psychedelic drugs but have never done any myself.

Once I sat naked in the woods in Manhattan’s Central Park during a thunderstorm and screamed Bible passages and Johnny Cash lyrics at the dark.

I haven’t really figured out who I am or why I’m here.
I guess maybe that’s why I wrote this book. Maybe you can figure it out.

Anyway, I’m John Gillen.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The title of my novel, American Blasphemer, comes from a line in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia.

Major Lawrence discovers that one of his men has been lost in the desert while riding through the night and Lawrence rides back into the desert to save him. Sherif Ali, Lawrence’s friend and Bedouin ally, gets angry at him, believing that Lawrence is committing suicide.

Sherif Ali claims that the lost man’s misfortune was destiny, divine providence. Sherif Ali says that, “it is written.” To which Lawrence replies, “Nothing is written.”
Lawrence rides into the desert and Sherif Ali and yells “Go back then, English blasphemer!”

I’ve always thought this was one of the most marvelous turns of language I’ve ever heard. Ali’s saying that Lawrence is defying God by trying to save a life. He’s also calling Lawrence English to disown him, and what he’s doing.

As for what inspired the content of my novel, I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me.

Life is full of formative experiences that no one talks about. Things happen to us, or we meet someone, and it changes our lives, but we never speak about it. There isn’t space in normal daily life to stop what you’re doing and tell the stories that really matter. Stories about knife fights and sex addicts. Stories about what it was like in NYC after 9/11 or watching your brother do acid at Christmas. After accumulating a lot of these stories, I realized that I needed somewhere to put all of them because they were too important to ignore and couldn’t exist in the normal world. Out of this urgent chaos came, American Blasphemer.

Lawrence saves the man, returns to face Ali, and again says, “Nothing is written.”

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Writing is my unusual habit.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
This answer is limitless, but I will list a few in no particular order.

Bob Dylan, John Ford, Martin Scorsese, George Carlin, Solomon, Johnny Cash. Hank Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, Flannery O’Connor, The Coen Brothers, John Steinbeck, The Three Stooges, Walt Whitman, Keith Richards, Paul, Ezra Pound, Woody Allen, The Prophet Isaiah, and whoever wrote The Book of Job.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on producing an audiobook of American Blasphemer and then I plan to resume work on several film making projects.

I intend to produce and direct a feature film once the apocalypse is over.

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

Do you have any advice for new authors?
On the gravestone of Charles Bukowski are the image of a boxer and the words, “Don’t try.”

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” – Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV

What are you reading now?
I’ve mostly been reading and giving feedback on screenplays lately. I’m in 2nd Kings Chapter Five. I’ve also got a book called Blitzed about drugs in Nazi Germany and American Kingpin about The Dread Pirate Roberts. I’m not sure what all of this I’ll get time to read, but that’s what’s been going on with me.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to write a feature screenplay called Kitchen about a series of failed relationships that all take place in one room. I’m going to steal a lot of stuff from Jules and Jim, Frances Ha, Slacker, and Stranger Than Paradise and see if I can produce and direct the whole bloody thing myself too.

I’d like to do a book of poetry soon. I write tons of poetry and have enough to fill volumes.

I’ve got a completed draft of a nonfiction book on the work of David Lynch called touching Blue Velvet which I’m thinking of publishing.

I’ve got some other writing projects going as well but nothing worth mentioning here yet.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Bible, The Brothers Karamazov, How to Build a Boat on a Desert Island, and Moby Dick.

Author Websites and Profiles
John Gillen Website
John Gillen Amazon Profile

John Gillen’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an ex-military guy who only ever wanted to be a published author. The demands of military life required that I shelved my dream–it’s difficult to write when you work long weeks, are constantly deployed and/or moving, and have little stability in your life. So, once I left the service, I dove back into fiction. After a few years of writing absolutely horrible stuff, practice made ‘better’ (I will never be a perfect writer).

After publishing my first book (a suspense adapted from one of my audio drama–fiction–podcasts) in 2018, I’ve published nine other works.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My upcoming release is called Bitter Aries, and it represents a seminal moment in my author career, because it is a dramatic shift.

Up until now, fans of my books and podcast have known me as a thriller/horror/suspense writer. I gave them a heads up in 2019 that I would be moving toward my first love–fantasy. Thankfully, they have been understanding and supportive.

And I’m kicking off this new course in my author journey with this book, which is the first in a much longer series. The entire project is new for me. I’ve never written in a series or published in fantasy, and now that is happening (Bitter Aries is book 1 of The Zodiac series). The first four books in the series will be published, one each month, starting in July 2020.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Aren’t all authors ‘unusual’ in some respect? 🙂

Actually, I’m very structured. I write at the same spot in my house, at the same time, every day.

I do have to have my coffee warmer (all writers need one of these!) and I also place a cool knick-knack my wife bought me in front of my screen when I’m editing a novel (the knick knack is a porcelain that says “Write without fear. Edit without mercy.”).

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Clive Barker, Sue Grafton, Jim Butcher, Stephen King, George RR Martin, Piers Anthony, and Christopher Moore come immediately to mind.

What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on getting ahead of my publishing calendar (finally) by working on the audio books for the first four novels in The Zodiac series.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Using my Audio Fiction with Paul Sating podcast. It’s my loss-leader. Yes, I use perma-free novellas to find readers, along with ad services, but I’ve had a number of fans find me after first discovering my podcast.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
First, determine your writing goals. Not everyone aims for the same thing. Establishing that first will help you focus, reduce stress and wasted effort, and help you understand where you need to invest your energy, time, and money.

The reason we see arguments amongst writers on social media is not because ‘the other’ is a jerk; it’s because we all have different goals which require different actions.

I cannot stress this enough; figure out WHAT your writing future looks like and then, and only then, start figuring out what you need to do to get there.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Hemingway said to always stop your writing session at a “good spot.”

Don’t write all the way through the scene or the chapter to stop for the day. Stop at a good, juicy, exciting spot in the story.

It makes picking up the next day so easy–it really, truly does.

Think about it, you stopped at the end of the chapter. You walk away from the computer and then try to pick up the next day or three days later. You’re in a fresh spot in the story. Your brain goes a thousand miles an hour to figure out how/where to start again.

Compare that to this:

“Gene looked at the man she hated more than anyone in the world. He lunged for her, but not before she brought the gun up and”

And you stop there, right at the word “and.”

Do you feel that?

Yeah, that’s your imagination fully engaged. You’re thinking about all sorts of possibilities and it’s not even your story! Imagine when it is.

Always stop every writing session in one of those “good” spots.

What are you reading now?
Jim Butcher’s “Blood Rites” and Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States.”

What’s next for you as a writer?
As soon as the first four books in The Zodiac are completely packaged to be published (ebook, paperback, and audio), I’ll be outlining a fantasy trilogy that is a mix of The Witcher and Conan.

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?
Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood”
Christopher Moore’s “Lamb”
Stephen King’s “IT”
Robert Jordan’s “The Eye of the World”

Author Websites and Profiles
Paul Sating Website
Paul Sating Amazon Profile

Paul Sating’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a fantasy and science fiction writer for about ten years, and have published two books, two short story anthologies, and the occasional short story in Encounters magazine.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Badlands Cursed, the sequel to Badlands Born. Both stories were inspired by a youth misspent watching B-grade movies and listening to way too much hair metal. It’s both a love letter and a break-up note to those fantastic heady times and the dark stories of those who lived the party lifestyle but couldn’t sustain it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
When I need to write high-energy scenes, I crank up the music as loud as I can. It drowns out the inner critic and just lets me get in the flow. I call it metal meditation.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m a big fan of classic sci-fi like Dune, the Foundation series, and Starship Troopers. In fantasy the Book of Swords series and the Belgariad were huge influencers. Now, I re-read Elizabeth Moon’s Paksenarrion trilogy and Neal Asher’s catalog at least once a year.

What are you working on now?
I am working on Badlans Born book 3, which will be coming out in late 2020.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The people who subscribe to my reader group newsletter, who are readers who have either signed up from the back of my ebooks or have downloaded a Badlands Born short story.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Stay in the chair and write. There will be good writing days and bad writing days but in the end, your readers won’t notice the difference so keep going.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Everyone’s writing methods are different. Try everything and keep what fits, discard what doesn’t.

What are you reading now?
The Human by Neal Asher.

What’s next for you as a writer?
After Badlands Book 3 I’ll be writing book 1 in a new series before going back to the Badlands.

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 Deed of Paskenarrion by Elizabeth Moon (because a 3-book omnibus only counts as one book), Anathem by Neal Stephenson, Shogun by James Clavell, and Dune by Frank Herbert.

Author Websites and Profiles
Wade Peterson Website
Wade Peterson Amazon Profile

Wade Peterson’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written ten works of fiction and published them independently and collectively. I’ve also written and published two short political works.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest publication is called Adult Short Stories and it is the complete collection of all the short fiction I’ve written over the past five years. I was inspired to do this by the desire to have my first full length book out there for people to enjoy.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I will start writing stories and developing characters with no fixed idea on how I will end the story. I never begin the creative process with a fully fleshed out narrative in my mind.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange is one of my favourite stories. I’m also a big fan of Chuck Palahniuk. I enjoyed his latest work Adjustment Day.

What are you working on now?
I’m putting together a dairy recording my time in isolation during this global pandemic. It’s called Killiney Corona Diary. Not sure when I will publish it.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ll let you know when I find it. When it comes to promoting my works I would not be the person to come to for advice.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t worry about style. Don’t fear constructive criticism. Stay humble and recognize that you are on a learning curve. Besides this, just write freely. If you love what you do that’s what matters most.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A former employer telling me the simple truth that I shouldn’t be overly concerned with other people’s opinions.

What are you reading now?
I find myself trying to stay away from the news cycles for days at a time while reading short fiction on reddit.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I won’t know until it comes to me.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
Carrie by Stephen King
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

Author Websites and Profiles
Steven Forester Amazon Profile

Steven Forester’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a curious mix of Musician, Lawyer and now writer. I studied Law in the 90’s but was then seduced by the dark side – Rock and Roll! I worked as a pro musician for some 20 years as a songwriter, session musician and teacher.

Later in life I returned to the books and qualified as a Lawyer and Mediator and now, virus aside, am carving out an existence which combines all of the the above.

I’m working on a novel with an accompanying soundtrack album but have just self published my first non fiction piece.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My new book is How to Write a Song and the spark came from the many people who I’ve met, taught or just bumped into who would love to write a song but don’t really know where to start. Bit like a novel… there’s a song in everybody and so my aim is to help those frustrated songwriters as best I can.

The book is really an elaboration of some workshops I did with underprivileged kids a few years ago. These were kids who were brimming with talent and vitality but had no exposure to proper music teachers or facilities.

So we gathered in a room and I simply talked to these kids and, much to their amusement, wrote down pretty much everything they said. But then they all sat up when I chopped, chewed and crafted their own words into a verse, then a Chorus. I sat at the piano and stuck a few chords to their words and in a couple of hours they were all up and gathered around a mic recording their own song.

It was great to see and the book takes that premise into a little more detail to help anyone and everyone vent their musical spleens.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My computer sits in front of me and my synth directly to my right. If the words don’t flow on the computer I simply swivel the chair round and see if some notes might flow instead.

Hopefully this gives me at least some progress either in terms of music or words. It’s certainly interesting with the novel. As it progresses, various parts of the story jump out as being song material and so although I haven’t mastered working both kinds of keyboards at the same time, it moves everything along, slowly but together.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
In terms of the upcoming novel, without a doubt Stephen King. His book “On Writing” is a must read for any wannabe writer.

I recently re-read “It” and as well as being scared to death for the second time, I marvelled at the absolutely exquisite structure. That guy knows how to write!

With the non-fiction piece, I’ve read plenty of Law books over the last few years and some of them are duller than dull. I have a friend in New Zealand, Joe Bennett, who writes fantastic travel books. He manages to get a perfect balance of information and humour whilst letting his own non-fiction read like a story.

What are you working on now?
As I mentioned, it’s the slow moving novel with bonus album. It’s coming but I’m not beating myself up about the pace.

With How to Write a Song it really was a case of write what you know and although it is in itself quite a short piece of work, it came quickly and easily.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m new to this so it’s the usual social media sites first and I’m slowly exploring sites like Goodreads to expand the reach as it were.

Of course it helps that I have various music projects on the go at any one time and so I can merge the promo of the book with the music.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
As Mr King advised in “On Writing”….. just start. After that accept the bad days with zero words and move on.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Sorry… stuck record here. See above!

What are you reading now?
A mish-mash which includes Getting to Yes by Fisher and Ury – my attempt at keeping in touch with the Law/Mediation world while in lockdown.

Also on the go are Letters from an Astrophysicist by Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Dead Man’s Blues by Ray Celestin.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ll be chipping away at that novel and starting another non-fiction book. I’ve got lots to learn all round and so I guess I’m in it for the long haul!

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 like the all in one version of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings please. I’m happily lost in that world and by the time you get to the end it’s no trouble to start again.

The Shining would have to be my SK selection and that alongside The Road by Cormac Macarthy would at least remind me that things could be worse.

Finally, I never read a Brief History of Time so I’ll squeeze that one in too if that’s ok.

Author Websites and Profiles
Andy Duerden Website
Andy Duerden Amazon Profile

Andy Duerden’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
How many books? Lots – lost count ( over 30 anyway)

Ruth Finnegan OBE, FBA, an anthropologist and multi-award writer, is EmerItus Professor of the Open University. With extensive experience of both secondary and tertiary education, currently her prime nterest, besides her continuing single-authored books, is as founder and general editor of the educational series ‘Hearing Others’ Voices’ designed to open young adults beyond exam-oriented curricula to the wider opportunities and knowledge in the world and the possibilities of an imagination, understanding and well-informed life in the future.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘The helix pearl, the story of the wine dark garrulous sea’. In psoired in a way by my orzo-winning novel ‘Black inked pearl’ as I wanted a different take in the same story ( this time it’s told from the SEAS)s oersoectvek very different) and above all by Homer.

But in a way by nothing, it just arrived in my sleep.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
For my academic books I sit down at my desk and gather my notes and look things up, and think, and concentrate ( try to) and organise myself. And then revise and rewrite a million times

Fir my novels and screenplays I – DO NOTHING, .pthey just arrive: from my unconscious? from heaven? from another time and place? Don’t know from

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Academic books: just about everything I’ve ever read, nit least Erasmus, Bible, Augustine, Vic Turner, Richard Bauman

Creative writing – Homer, Shakespeare, Rumi, Blake

What are you working on now?
Co-editing a wonderful series for young adults, ‘Hearing Others’ Voices, learning so much from it ( https://www.balestier.com/category/hearing-others-voices/)

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Reviews and/ or book awards with
Literary Titan
Author Marketing Services
Readers Favorite

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t be too perfectionist ( deadlines help)

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
From my mother – keep it simple ( well, I really do try)

What are you reading now?
More ‘listening to’: I think beautiful words are to be heard, not seen. So – listening to Shakespeare sonnets, Rumi lyrics, Biblical,osalma, is an ‘Pride and Prejudice ’ fir the umternth time, always find something new in it ( you too I guess.,, )

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have to wait – the next thing will just ‘arrive’ unplanned.A novel I THINK -but who knows…

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Homer
Shakespeare
Rumi
and ( you won’t believe) Agatha Christie (any) or Georgette Heyer ( any)

Author Websites and Profiles
Ruth Finnegan Website
Ruth Finnegan Amazon Profile

Ruth Finnegan’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account