Awesome Author Interviews

Interview With Author Carol Stevens

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I started writing books after working as a journalist for publications including USA Today, the Detroit News, the Buffalo Courier-Express, and Washingtonian magazine.
Mona the Mermaid: Mona Stalks a Jackal is the first book I’ve published. It is an early chapter book for children at that magical age between four and 10, when they can follow the plot of a chapter book, whether it is read to them or they read it themselves.
Mona the Mermaid was inspired by my family’s summer visits to Crescent Bay, Ontario. It is natural, then, that my daughter Claire Brady illustrated the book.
More Mona the Mermaid books are in the works, including Mona the Mermaid: Mona Saves Niagara Falls, which will be released later this year.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Mona the Mermaid: Mona Stalks a Jackal
I was introduced to Crescent Bay, Ontario when I worked as a newspaper columnist and reporter at the Courier-Express in Buffalo, N.Y. Fellow reporter, Erik Brady, invited me to visit a small cottage on the sandy shores of Lake Erie, which has been in his family for more than 100 years.
Fast forward a few years to when Erik and I were married and we honeymooned in that very cottage. Even after our newspaper folded – and we relocated to Arlington, Va., to work for USA Today – we visited Crescent Beach each summer.
Oral versions of Mona the Mermaid stories originated as bedtime rituals when our two children were young and have been retold to cousins, nieces, nephews and grandchildren ever since. Alas, they were never preserved on paper.
A few years back, daughter Claire Brady’s family couldn’t make the annual pilgrimage to Crescent Beach. But she challenged me to create Mona the Mermaid stories and email a chapter each evening for her children to enjoy.
It only made sense, then, for Claire to illustrate the resulting Mona the Mermaid books. Who better to bring to life the creatures of Crescent than someone who had envisioned them all of her life?

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My grandchildren are my beta readers – and they are exacting editors.
When I’m working on a new Mona the Mermaid book, they have me send them a new chapter each day.
If their chapter hasn’t arrived by 5 p.m., they call me to inform me I’ve missed my deadline.
Sometimes I get real-time feedback; sometimes it’s via audio. It’s always insightful. And they keep me out of trouble. One evening, my four-year-old granddaughter called me to inform me I had confused “predator” and “prey.” She was right! Whew!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love reading children’s chapter books. I’m a sucker for any Beverly Cleary book. I enjoy the Piper Green and the Fairy Tree series by Ellen Potter and the Orson Eerie series by Jack Chabert.

What are you working on now?
I plan to release Mona the Mermaid: Mona Save Niagara Falls later this year. Then I will turn to the two other Mona the Mermaid books I’ve written that are in various stages of readiness.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This is a work in progress. My extended social network has been great about writing enthusiastic reviews. I try to learn about one promotion method each month and experiment with it to see if it works for me.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
There are so many ways to promote a new book that it will make you dizzy. You can’t do everything at once. Explore one option at a time. Decide whether it works for you and then move on.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Mona the Mermaid offers some great advice that I’ve adopted as words to live by professionally: You don’t have to be brave to act brave.

What are you reading now?
Right now I’m reading, The Next Ship Home, a novel of Ellis Island, by Heather Webb.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I plan to publish my next three books in the Mona the Mermaid series. I’m also noodling ideas for a middle grade 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?
They would have to be books I hadn’t yet read….so anything new by Amor Towles, Anne Tyler, Louise Penney.

Author Websites and Profiles

Carol Stevens Website

Carol Stevens Amazon Profile

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Author Interview Series

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Interview With Author Raine Fielder

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I grew up in a very small town. There wasn’t much to do if you didn’t play sports so I was an artist. I liked to sing and dance. I loved drawing and writing. All of it was natural and personal. Then I started writing stories. Though it wasn’t until much later that self-publishing became easy. I finished a book that I wrote as a teenager and then couldn’t stop. Like turning on a faucet.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The last book is called “Skin Deep” and it started as a simple idea. Tattoos that come to life. It was supposed to just be a simple horror, but the flow stopped there. I had a couple starting pages but it went nowhere. Then one night after watching an incredible documentary on pirates, I remembered meeting a woman who had named her daughter Arabella. For some reason that named opened up a whole alternate timeline and backstory for the tattoos. I had it all mapped out almost in a few minutes. I rushed to write down the major plot points and the whole story got so much deeper.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have so many unusual habits but with writing I’m sure most things I do to “get in the zone” are pretty common. I listen to music to set the mood. One thing I try to do is light a scented candle. I use a different scent for each story. Then if I’m blocked I can light the same scent and be right back in the world I need to get into. Scent is a powerful tool that is severely underrated.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have been reading all my life. I wouldn’t say that most of the books or authors I’ve read have singularly influenced me in genre or style. But just overall learning from the greats. I did write a novella about Shakespeare so I guess that is the most direct thing. I grew up reading such a variety though, Stephen King, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Lord of the Flies. My favorite book though is one hundred percent “Wicked” by Gregory McGuire, I’ve read it fifteen times.

What are you working on now?
I have a four part Series called Invictus. I’m working on the fourth now, it’s called Vixen. The series follows four college aged girls with superpowers. Each book focuses on one of the four girls. This is the last one that I have planned, I wouldn’t say that I will never write about them again but for now, this will be the last, I’m wrapping up this particular story.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I do like posting to Vocal but mostly I’m still trying to figure out the marketing of it all. I love everything else about being an independent author. I like doing it all myself, down to font choice for book covers. I can’t imagine not having complete control of every piece. But the marketing and promoting is the one drawback of being indie.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
The candle thing is one. When you’re writing good, light a candle. Of course make sure to use one scent per story because the scent will take you back to that specific world. Other than that, just be yourself, write like you. Don’t try to sound smart or impress with big words. People want to be told a story and get carried off into a fictional word, not have to pause and get a dictionary out every few pages.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I don’t know if people find him problematic now or not but Neil Gaiman said something that stuck with me.
“Imagine you’re a bricklayer, and each word is a brick. On some days you can only lay one brick at a time, slowly. Others you are laying them faster than a machine. But when the wall is built, you step back and you can’t tell which bricks were laid on the slow days or the fast ones. That’s what writing is like, so don’t worry about the slow days, you’re still building a story. And once it’s done it won’t matter at all.”

What are you reading now?
A book of short stories called, “the end of the world as we know it.”
It’s a collection of stories from different famous Authors. They are all different stories of people set in the world of Stephen King’s “the Stand”. It’s very interesting.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I hope getting more sales and readers. I’m kind of at a place where I know the routine of writing a story and getting it all set up. Making video trailers, covers, editing. I am happy with doing it like this and don’t see changes to that. I do hope for more of an audience. Something new is that I just started a mystery series of short stories all featuring the same detective. She’s a mystery author too. Think Hercule Poirot, Sherlock, Dupin, etc. But it’s almost like if Agatha Christie was her own detective or something because my detective is a whodunit writer herself.

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?
First of all, the Bible.
I would take “Wicked” and the fourth book in the “Wicked” series called “out of OZ” it’s about *spoiler* Elphaba’s granddaughter named Rain (which i love for obvious reasons)
And for sure something by Charles Dickens

Author Websites and Profiles

Raine Fielder Website

Raine Fielder Amazon Profile

Raine Fielder’s Social Media Links

Goodreads Profile

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!

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Interview With Author Elaine Wickes

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am retired married living in PA I enjoy storytelling I write romance novels and also children’s books. I live with my husband and four beautiful cats. They keep me laughing with all their little antics.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest book was from tragedy to happiness. Nothing really inspired me. It was just my imagination. I was watching a law show, and it just came to me and the relationships came as I was writing the book.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Unusual writing habits I’m in order to write my books. I need to be in solitude which I’m assuming most most writers do but I need to be quiet and I go out on my deck with my computer my coffee, sometimes a soda sometimes even a drink and I sit and listen to the birds sing and watch the squirrels run around the backyard and just the regular going on in the neighborhood and then my stories just come to me

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Books like crime dramas , mysteries, and i will admit I do enjoy some of the erotica books i have read.

What are you working on now?
Now I am working on publishing my second children’s book Teddy’s adventures fun in the city. I am also working on my fourth romance novel, which should be out probably in April or May.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My book is promoted mainly on Amazon. I do have two dedicated websites for the romance novels under EW Suzette and the teddy bear adventures is under actually Elainewickesauthor.com. I am also on Facebook. It is a new site and there are not many followers, but I do promote the book there also.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice for new authors, my God you need to be very patient and if you have the availability to go to like book fairs, or even flea markets and set out your books, sometimes you can get sales that way me being disabled that is not an option for me so I am kind of bound to the websites and the mercy of Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s. That’s probably my best advice is just you have to be very very patient and hopefully the sales come.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I was told by another author once just be patient the sales will come, and that is what I put my faith in

What are you reading now?
Right now I’m not reading anything. I am just concentrating my all my time on writing.

What’s next for you as a writer?
What’s next I have no idea, but I’m very happy about what I see in the future more storytelling, more writing romance novels and even more children’s books I can’t wait

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 would bring a mystery a crime drama a children’s book and a book written by Maya Banks

Author Websites and Profiles

Elaine Wickes Website

Elaine Wickes 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.

Interview With Author Ernie Zelinski

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have published 20 books that have been published in 22 languages in 29 countries and have sold over 1,125,000 copies worldwide.

My signature book “The Joy of Not Working” was self-published in 1991 and then taken over by Ten Speed Press in 1997. It has now sold over 320,000 copies sold and has been published in 17 foreign languages.

My flagship book “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free” was rejected by 35 US and British publishers so I self-published it in 2003. Random House and Wiley wanted to take it over but their royalty rates were too low for my liking. The book has now sold over 475,000 copies and has been published in 11 languages.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
GREAT FRIENDS ROCK (How to Find Them — And Keep Them!)
This is a book that I wrote in 2002, the same year I wrote my flagship book “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free”.
I sold French and Spanish rights but then I set it aside to write and promote other books.
In January 2025, I was working on another book and looked at “GREAT FRIENDS ROCK” for some material to plagerize. I skimmed through it and realized that it was a good book and I should self-publish it given that loneliness had become such a big problem in today’s society.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I imagine that a lot of people will say all my writing habits are unusual:
For example,
1. I prefer to work in coffee bars where there are people around instead of my home office.
2. Being a night owl, I prefer to work in 24-hour coffee bars in which I can hang out until 2 AM or 3 AM.
3. Even though I have a new Thinkpad and an Apple Mac Pro (about a year old), I work on a 14-year-old Dell laptop with Windows XP on it.
4. My latest book “Great Friends Rock” was written on 14-year-old Dell laptop with Windows XP using Word 97. I used Word 97 to lay out the book in color and then used an Adobe 6 to generate PDFs for the offset printer that printed 2,000 copies.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
TOP 10 BOOKS THAT INFLUENCED ME:
1. “Illusions” by Richard Bach
2. “The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment” by Thaddeus Golas
3. “Million Dollar Habits” by Robert J. Ringer
4. “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exup ry
5. “Looking Out for Number 1” by “Robert J. Ringer”
6. “Messiah’s Handbook” by Richard Bach
7. “Living the 80/20 Way” by Richard Koch
8. “Winning Through Enlightenment” by Ron Smotherman
9. “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz
10 “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle

What are you working on now?
I am presently working on the 25th Anniversary Updated Edition of “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free” that will be released on September 30 and will be distributed by Simon and Schuster in the US.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
In the past, I had 7 websites that I used to promote my retirement books. The websites were all retirement related and I had such great search engine optimization that sometimes for key retirement words, I would have 4 of the 10 spots on Google for the search term. But those techniques don’t work anymore.

Having said that, the best promotion for books is still word-of-mouth advertising.
For example, recently I was trying to figure why there was such a spike in the ebook sales of “The Joy of Not Working” with the vast majority coming from the United Kingdom. Sales that wouldn’t normally happen are still happening today and I have earned over $3,000 that wouldn’t have happened (from a book I wrote 35 years ago).

I only found out about this video because my good friend Randy Edwards learned about the video and sent me the link.

“The Joy of Not Working” Explained in 14 Minutes

Note that this guy Richard in the United Kingdom has 36,400 subscribers on YouTube and this particular video about “The Joy of Not Working” has now had over 70,000 views.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
“Do it badly — but at least do it!” is my own motto I have lived by.

In the same vein,
“Remember that done is better than perfect.”
— Jen Sincero

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“It is much more profitable to do subpar work on the right project than excellent work on the wrong project.”
— Robert J. Ringer

What are you reading now?
“Complete Dream Healer” by Adam McLeod
“Every Thing Is F*cked” by Mark Manson
“Keep Going” by Austin Kleon

What’s next for you as a writer?
I am 76 years old and I have written 20 books so far.
I want to write 27 books in my lifetime.
Andrews McMeel has asked me to write another retirement book for them so I will work on that after I complete the 25th Anniversary Updated Edition of “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free”.
I want my last book to be an autobiography titled “There Is No Off-Switch on This Genius Machine.”

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?
Great question!
I suppose I would want to bring books that I have never read before.
Moreover, I would chose books that are long and have a lot of content.

Author Websites and Profiles

Ernie Zelinski Website

Ernie Zelinski Amazon Profile

Ernie Zelinski’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.

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Interview With Author Giorgio Onorato Aquilani

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Giorgio Onorato Aquilani. I’m a storyteller and the creator of The Kingdom of Santa Claus, a narrative universe built around a simple idea: that wonder is something we often forget as we grow up, but never truly lose.

Over the years I have written several books for children and families, as well as stories that explore the deeper meaning of imagination, memory, and the human need for wonder.

My upcoming novel Back to Magic will be published in Italy by Fabbri Editori (Mondadori Group). It is the gateway story into the larger narrative world of the Kingdom.

More than counting books, I like to think of my work as building a world… one story at a time.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest novel is called Back to Magic and it’s a cross-generational story about the moment in life when we believe magic has disappeared forever. And the discovery that it might still exist if we choose to see it again.

The story follows Luca, a writer who has slowly lost his sense of wonder, until a forgotten thread from his childhood leads him toward a hidden world rewriting the myth of Santa Claus.

The inspiration came from a very simple question: What if the magic we think we lose growing up was never really gone?

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Well I consider myself the main tester of what I write about. I built this narrative universe using Christmas as a language to talk about life, to talk about what happens when we grow and how that sense of wonder can remain till our last breathe. Said so, every time I personally encounter any important threshold or obstacle, I long for the universal archetype hiding behind it… and I found something that belongs to everybody. Once it’s clear, I start dressing it in wonder and that can produce a new character or a new story plot. The process is also my own therapy, and at the end of it I always find myself a step ahead that “threshold”. Yes, my writing is all about Thresholds and Mirros!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve always been drawn to authors who combine imagination with deeper meaning. Writers like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Italo Calvino, Hermann Hesse, and storytellers such as C.S. Lewis have influenced the way I think about stories. On a very personal note, I appreciate a mirror myself a lot with Matt Haig.

I love to read anything that can bring my understanding of reality to a deeper and more conscious level.

What are you working on now?
I constantly support the foreign rights team in Mondadori to showcase it to the best international publishing partners we can get. Most of all, I’m continuing to develop the narrative universe around Back to Magic

Alongside the novel, there are children’s stories set in the same world. Including a character called Lucy the Star, who explores the Kingdom from the perspective of those who still live naturally inside wonder: children. Lucy already has a 4 books illustrated saga ready!

The long-term vision is a cross-generational universe that can expand through books, visual storytelling, and immersive experiences.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
For me the most meaningful promotion always begins with authentic storytelling. If people connect emotionally with a story, they naturally want to share it. So I basically generate and take as many chances as I can to speak to people and get them curious about the world I created. And to do that, my number one belief to deliver “the best “promotion” is building a world that readers feel they can enter and recognize as part of their own experience.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write the story that feels most true to you. Writing is not about pleasing someone or adapting to “needs” Publishing trends change constantly, but authenticity is something readers can always feel. A story becomes powerful when it comes from a place that is real and personal. That activates a mirror in the reader… and that’s the most precious prize a writer can aim for.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t stop…

As simple as that. Life prizes who has the courage to pursue a dream under any kind of weather. Especially during a storm… you want to stay there. You need to. Sunshine will come and will comfort anyone who stayed there, not the ones who quit.

What are you reading now?
I often move between fiction and philosophical writing. I’m particularly interested in books that explore imagination, myth, and the human search for meaning. The book I recently finished was Matt Haig’s The Life Impossible… and I loved it.

What’s next for you as a writer?
The next step is to find the right publishing partners for Back to Magic in UK, USA and other foreign countries, and continuing to expand the narrative world around it. My goal is to keep building stories that speak to both children and adults, reminding us that wonder is a choice we can make everyday.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Oh my… this is hard. But I believe it would be:

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

and then… (hope it’s not cheating) I would bring a huuuuge notebook to write my own!

Author Websites and Profiles

Giorgio Onorato Aquilani Website

Giorgio Onorato Aquilani’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.

Interview With Author James Porter

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a husband, father, grandpa, writer, actor, and dreamer. My career has been in computers and information technology, but my art is writing and spending time with family.

I started writing stories around the age of six or so, and dabbled with it off and on since then. During the COVID pandemic, starting in 2020, I resumed the practice as a form of mental therapy. One story, a shaggy dog story involving Mary and Jake and Grandma Gaught, proved to be the seed that grew into “Our Better Nature”, my first novel.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Our Better Nature” started as a shaggy-dog short story, that ended with the punch line, “Grandma Gaught runs over the rain, dear”.

That turned into the novel about wiccan women who can wrangle the weather, and use that power to take on the global industrial complex, with the goal of curing climate change.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write early in the morning, before the rest of the house is up. Sometimes VERY early, if my brain gets an idea in the middle of the night, and won’t let go.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Heinlein, Bill Watterson, Vonnegut, Asimov, Christopher Moore, Terry Pratchett, A.A. Milne, Tolkien, and many others.

What are you working on now?
What happens if two planets are in ALMOST the same orbit, and come near each other every few centuries?

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Still looking! Maybe this one!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep your day job. Write for fun, at least at first. This was same advice a seasoned actor gave to a high-school student about becoming an actor.

Beyond that, read. Read everything. Read a lot. Then write, a lot. Write the terrible bits. Write the implausible stories, the awful characters, the ridiculous settings, plots full of holes. Then rewrite, or throw them out and start over. But write. A lot.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write. You can’t edit a blank page.

What are you reading now?
Just finished “Project Hail Mary”

What’s next for you as a writer?
Returning to writing short stories for awhile, before tackling another novel.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Time Enough for Love
Collected works of Bill Watterson
Cryptonomicon (it’s big enough to be a boat!)

Author Websites and Profiles

James Porter Amazon Profile

James Porter’s Social Media Links

Goodreads Profile

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.

Interview With Author Sonu Sharma

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
A full-time father, a nine-to-five HR professional, and an all-time
seeker of words. For over a decade and a half, I have danced through the corporate corridors, balancing deadlines with daydreams.

Though I’ve always envisioned myself as a working professional, my heart often strayed
toward the written word. Whether through casual LinkedIn reflections, quiet poetry, or
whispered dreams under the pen name “SonuPoetic. I kept writing, daily, softly, unknowingly falling in love with the art of shaping emotion into language and am ready to publish my first book while two are on the way.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The book title is “Shri Krishan: The Unbounded Hero”. The book explores the life and teachings of Lord Krishna through a contemporary lens, focusing on mindfulness, emotional strength, and practical life wisdom rather than a purely religious perspective.

In a time when information overload, competition, and mental strain are affecting clarity and well-being, Krishna’s timeless insights offer grounding and relevance. This book examines the many roles he played as friend, strategist, guide, and leader, and how those dimensions reflect the complexities of human life today.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Oh yes, I’m most active at the oddest hours and in unexpected conditions. As a midnight thinker, most of my creative ideas arrive when the world around me is asleep. I also find myself especially inspired while travelling, whether it’s on a flight or waiting at the airport.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have always been a great admirer of Dale Carnegie; his books shaped my early years and played a significant role in inspiring me to write. However, the one book that transformed my life profoundly is the Bhagavad Gita. It addresses every dimension of human life with remarkable practicality and depth. Through every high and low, it has been a constant source of strength and direction for me.

What are you working on now?
Currently, I am working on two upcoming books, one centred on psychology and the other inspired by a father’s life. In addition, I regularly publish poetry and articles on leadership on LinkedIn and Medium.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesome Gang is a fantastic platform for promoting books. The way they support and uplift new authors is truly commendable. In addition, social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn serve as powerful tools for reaching and engaging with readers.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep going. Writing isn’t an easy path, and not everyone has the courage or patience to pursue it. Take a moment to appreciate yourself for choosing this craft, for staying committed, and for creating a little magic with your words.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Detach from the outcome, commit to the craft,” Krishna says, don’t worry about the results, just focus on the efforts. Sales, reviews, recognition, they are outcomes. Writing is the practice.

What are you reading now?
Reading is nourishment for my soul. At the moment, I’m currently reading ” The Hidden Hindu” by Akshat Gupta.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Something truly unique and unexplored is on its way. Wish me luck as I strive to do justice to this subject. I’ll be revealing it soon.

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?
For motivation and a steady, positive mindset, I would carry the Bhagavad Gita as my anchor. For a dose of imagination and escape, I’d take the Harry Potter series. And for practicality, the third choice would definitely be a reliable desert survival guide.

Author Websites and Profiles

Sonu Sharma Website

Sonu Sharma Amazon Profile

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Interview With Author Petra Shaw

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am Petra Shaw, and I grew up in the New York area, but have since moved to another state. In school, I was told I had a talent for writing stories and was encouraged to continue. I’ve written at least sixteen books and plan to write many more.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is No Neutral Ground in Briar Hollow, the eleventh in The Quiet Discretion Mysteries series. The series features a town that has quietly changed how typical small towns govern themselves. Without a vote or any announcement, some group has taken over, and the townspeople are struggling to conform to this new way of living. This newest title in the series finds the main character resisting the governing entity to the point of being more than just an annoyance. What inspired it is all the secrecy in our society today. Companies, utilities, and sometimes local governments make changes without forewarning. When one tries to live as they always have, these entities inform them after the fact that they recently made a change and that the behavior must change. Slowly, these small changes force the townspeople to be under their control.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write at night. That way, I avoid all the spam phone calls and people knocking on the door. I can think without distraction.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Everything I’ve read in school, such as Hemingway, Orwell, the U.S. Constitution, and hundreds more across different genres.

What are you working on now?
I am working on book twelve of The Quiet Discretion Mysteries, where the main character has pushed things too far, and the stakes blow sky-high.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That has been my biggest issue. I’ve tried different marketing strategies with little success, but I keep finding new ones, and my sales are creeping upward. Currently, I’m posting pins on Pinterest and just posted on Awesomegang.com. Let’s see where these take me.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Find the one genre you would love to write in and learn how to write it. Find out what the readers want and write your best to give it to them. Don’t give up. Work a job if you have to in order to pay for your writing, and don’t expect instant wealth. I find that it is coming slowly.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Always check reviews for websites and individuals who attempt to get you to promote your books for a price. Most are just scams to extract a monthly fee from you. Don’t fall for it.

What are you reading now?
I am reading books to improve my marketing, such as Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson

What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing more!

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?
My scriptures, my journal, and How to Get Off Desert Islands for Dummies!

Author Websites and Profiles

Petra Shaw Website

Petra Shaw Amazon Profile

Petra Shaw’s Social Media Links

Facebook Profile

Pinterest Account

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Author Interview Series

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Interview With Author Ellenmorris Tiegerman

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a clinically trained Speech Language Pathologist, Special Education Teacher and Social Worker. I have taught at Adelphi University for 22 years as a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Communication Disorders. I loved teaching at the University and networking with facility and students. As a Professor, the mantra has always been “publish or perish.” So in my professional career at the University, I wrote many text books on clinical subjects concerning children with language and communication disorders. Over that period of time I always thought about shifting from an academic text to a more creative project involving a murder mystery on a college campus.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Several years ago while I was still teaching at the University, I decided to try my hand at writing a murder mystery which involved a Professor of Psychology such as myself. I wrote the manuscript from beginning to end but I was not satisfied with the storyline. I felt that there was something significant missing thematically with my main heroin and how she resolved the murder. During this period of time, I had the opportunity to take a clinical training course with Dr. Brian Weiss a world renowned Psychologist who specialized in past life regression. This was always a topic that interested me and I read all of his books so meeting him personally was very exciting.

The training week with Dr. Weiss was instructive or inspiring and ground changing for me. I pulled out the manuscript from my closet and decided that my heroin would use past life regression to solve the murder on campus and that would be my story line. It took weeks of work to reorganize the text but I had my inspiration and the work was worth it because I was thoroughly satisfied with my new project.

I decided that Professor Caitlyn Morrys, a projection of myself would share many of my experiences on campus and be part of a trilogy of books involving past life regression. My first book is entitled: Past Lives Denied with Professor Caitlyn Morrys as the leading character and heroin. This book introduces the topic of past life regression and all of the complex issues that are presently relevant to people who are interested in finding a past life. This is not an easy process and certainly Catliyn Morrys grapples with her own doubts and concerns as well as the negative opinions of others.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
For all of my books, whether I was writing an academic textbook or a more creative mystery, I have utilized a very strict writing schedule. I would get up every morning at 5 am and go to the gym for an hour to exercise. At the end of the hour, I would sit down at my computer and write for one hour. It did not matter to me whether I wrote 5 words or 5 pages. Whatever came to me I put on paper. I always walked away at 7 am in the morning to start my day to do other things.

There were times when the writing was a struggle so I utilized some helpful strategies when I was feeling that I had “writer’s block.” I always had a well-developed outline for all my books before I started writing. Sometimes starting on another chapter was very helpful to the writing process. If that did not work, I would often stop and look at other books and materials on a related topic or subject to see if I could glean ideas that helped me restart the process. I believe that writing is a marathon journey not a sprint race.

What authors, or books have influenced you?

What are you working on now?
The second book in the trilogy is entitled: God Denied which I recently completed and will be coming out on Amazon on March 10th for interested readers. The second book in the trilogy focuses on the challenges faced by Professor Ashford Connor who is a love interest for Caitlyn Morrys. His personal history, doubts and frustrations reflect the attitudes and ideas of most people today who laugh at or scoff at the idea of past life regression.

Certainly, there have been many books written about the stories of adults and children who have discovered their past lives and shared their very personal histories. You can read a very interesting book entitled: Soul Survivor written by Andrea Leninger who wrote about her young son who remembered his past life as a World War 2 pilot. The book describes the family’s struggles coming to terms with past life memories and dealing with a young child who is traumatized by the memories and realization.

In God Denied, Professor Ashford Connor must also deal with his memories and realizations that life is a lot more complex than anything we can actually see and feel. Our memories start long before we are born and it is our opportunity and sometimes our mission to discover a life beyond our present existence. Ashford Connor is a nonbeliever who rails against God and any kind of organized religion. His story underscores the challenges that we all face when we question mainstream society and mainstream values.

I am also working on the last book in the trilogy entitled: Rebecca Denied, which is all about the challenges faced by a child given the restrictions in our society and the negative attitudes about the possibility of past lives. I am hoping to complete this manuscript over the next year to finish the trilogy in the hope of opening up opportunities for readers who are curious to hopefully venture into the realm of past life regressions. Finding your past life is a journey which will take time and courage but will be wonderfully worth it.

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

Do you have any advice for new authors?
The best advice that I can share with new authors is to read everything you possibly can on your topic to see what is in your field of interest. It is also important to organize yourself before you sit down to seriously commit to writing your manuscript. Put together a detailed outline and then work from your outline to generate chapter summaries for the manuscript. Organize your writing around a schedule based on either a word commitment or a time commitment. Recognize that you are going to get “stuck” every once in a while which is part of the writing process.

There is a tremendous difference between writing an academic textbook and a fiction story. The academic textbook is heavily based on research and journals where you cite other peoples work. Writing a fiction manuscript is based on a creative process which relies on your own personal thoughts and original ideas. I used my own personal experiences at the University as a Professor as the major foundation for all of my books so I had an interesting mix of realistic personal experiences and new generative ideas. This made the creative writing process a lot easier for me and I highly recommend using your past experiences and relationships in your writing process.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?

What are you reading now?

What’s next for you as a writer?

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?

Author Websites and Profiles

Ellenmorris Tiegerman Website

Ellenmorris Tiegerman Amazon Profile

Ellenmorris Tiegerman’s Social Media Links

Facebook Profile

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Author Interview Series

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Interview With Author Mohamed Ayoub Bendakir

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Author and world-builder at heart, I specialize in crafting immersive narratives that span across time and dimensions. My work ranges from the grit and magic of the Stone Titan series to expansive science fiction sagas that ask the ‘big questions’ about our future. With a background and interest in technology and history, I weave intricate details and logical systems into every story I tell, ensuring that every world feels lived-in and every conflict feels earned.

In addition to my novels, I produce a wide array of activity books, bringing that same level of detail and quality to readers looking for interactive fun. I believe that books—whether they are read or played—should be an adventure. Join me on this journey as I continue to explore new frontiers in both fiction and interactive media.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Ice & Fire

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Foundation book

What are you working on now?
Babel’s Tyrant book 2 of Babel’s ascendant

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
First time using promotions & i choosed awsomegang

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Patience

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Work hard and give it time

What are you reading now?
Nothing

What’s next for you as a writer?
Growing audience

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?
Ice and fire collection

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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!

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Interview With Author Gabrishas キエーザろーひ

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a writer with a deep interest in martial arts history,
Japanese sword culture, and the question of what it truly means
to master something — not just perform it skillfully, but
understand it at a level you can barely put into words.

Chronicles of the Old Sword Saint is my debut series. The first
volume, The Boy Who Learned the Sword, is now available on
Amazon Kindle. I release new chapters on a weekly schedule,
which keeps me close to the readers and honest about the work.

Outside of writing, I enjoy cooking, long walks, and reading
history — particularly the kind that focuses on how ordinary
people lived, not just the famous ones. I believe the most
interesting characters are competent, quiet, and slightly
oblivious to how remarkable they are.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The book is called An Old Swordsman Got Isekai’d. Somehow He
Became the Greatest Blade in the Land. — Volume One: The Boy
Who Learned the Sword.

The inspiration came from a frustration with a pattern I kept
seeing in isekai fiction: the protagonist arrives in a new world,
immediately receives enormous power, and spends the story
proving it to everyone around them. I wanted to write the
opposite.

What if the protagonist already had everything — not a cheat
ability, but fifty years of genuine mastery — and the story
was about what that mastery actually looks like when applied
quietly and without ego? What does real strength feel like from
the inside, especially when the person carrying it still thinks
they have a long way to go?

The main character, Kirishima Sogen, dies as a 52-year-old
sword master in Edo-period Japan and is reincarnated into a
medieval fantasy world. He carries all his memories and all
his skill — but in an infant’s body, in a world where the sword
works differently. He doesn’t announce himself. He just starts
again, from the beginning, and does the work.

That image — a master starting over, still unsatisfied,
watching younger people catch up and quietly being proud of
them — felt like something worth writing.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I research before I write, which sounds ordinary, but I take
it further than most people probably should. Before writing
a scene involving wild boar behavior, I spent two hours reading
wildlife ecology papers. Before writing a medieval town, I
checked what roads actually looked like in 13th-century Europe
(dirt, mostly — not cobblestone, despite what films suggest).

I find that small accurate details give the world a solidity
that readers feel even if they can’t identify exactly why. And
when I get something wrong, I want it to be from ignorance,
not laziness.

I also write with the English translation in mind from the
start. The series is written in Japanese first, then translated
into English — so every scene has to work in both languages,
which shapes how I write dialogue in particular.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
For the core philosophy of the series — the idea of mastery
as something felt rather than explained — I keep returning to
books on Zen and the Japanese martial arts. Eugen Herrigel’s
Zen in the Art of Archery shaped how I think about what the
protagonist is trying to pass on to his students.

In fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin’s approach to quiet protagonists
has been a constant reference. She wrote powerful characters
who didn’t need to perform their power — and that restraint
is something I try to carry into every scene.

For isekai and Japanese light novel structure, I’ve read widely
but tried to write against the grain of what’s most common —
specifically the tendency toward spectacle over interiority.
The protagonist of this series spends a lot of time thinking,
observing, and feeling things he can’t put into words. That’s
unusual for the genre, and intentional.

What are you working on now?
I’m currently deep in Volume One, releasing new chapters every
Monday. The story has just reached a significant turning point:
the protagonist is now 40 years old, his former students have
become knights, court mages, and intelligence officers — and
he’s still running his small dojo, convinced he hasn’t figured
it out yet.

The next arc involves him being pulled, reluctantly, into the
world of the Royal Knight Order — and what happens when a quiet
man with no interest in recognition is suddenly visible to
people with very strong opinions about rank and status.

I’m also beginning to outline Volume Two, which I expect to
shift the geographic scope considerably.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Honestly, I’m still learning. What I’ve found so far is that
consistent output matters more than any single promotional
push. The weekly chapter release schedule has been the most
effective thing I’ve done — it gives readers a reason to come
back, and it keeps the book alive in their attention between
volumes.

For discovery, I’m focusing on sites that reach readers who
genuinely love the genres — fantasy, isekai, action adventure —
rather than broad audiences who might not connect with the
material. AwesomeGang is part of that approach.

I’d rather have two hundred readers who love the book than two
thousand who shrug at it.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write the book that only you could write. Not the book you
think will sell, not the book that fits the most popular tropes
— the book where your specific obsessions, your specific way of
seeing the world, your specific frustrations with every other
book you’ve read on the subject, are all on the page.

Readers can feel the difference between a writer who is
executing a formula and a writer who genuinely couldn’t stop
themselves from writing this particular story. The second one
is always more interesting, even when it’s rougher.

Also: research. The details you get right, quietly, without
calling attention to them — those are what make a world feel
real.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“The expert in anything was once a beginner.”

It sounds simple. But when you’re in the middle of a difficult
project and everything feels wrong, the reminder that the
distance between where you are and where you want to be is
crossable — not by talent, but by continued work — is the
only thing that keeps you moving.

My protagonist lives this advice. He’s been crossing that
distance for fifty years and still doesn’t think he’s arrived.
I find that more inspiring than any story about someone who
was simply born gifted.

What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading a history of medieval European guild
systems — research for background details in the series. I’m
also re-reading sections of The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto
Musashi, which I return to regularly when I need to recalibrate
how the protagonist thinks about conflict and stillness.

For fiction, I’ve been catching up on some contemporary fantasy
that I’d missed — trying to stay aware of what’s happening in
the genre while writing something that deliberately pushes
against certain conventions of it.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Finishing Volume One is the immediate goal — I expect it to
run another eight to ten chapters beyond where we are now.
After that, Volume Two will expand the world significantly.
The protagonist’s reputation, which has been contained to a
single kingdom so far, will begin to travel — and the
consequences of that will drive the next arc.

Longer term, I’m interested in writing something outside the
isekai genre entirely. The themes I care about — mastery,
transmission of knowledge, the gap between what you know and
what you can say — don’t require a fantasy setting. But that’s
a project for after this series finds its footing.

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 Complete Works of Montaigne — because he invented the
essay as a form of thinking out loud, and I could spend
years in conversation with him.

2. Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel — a short book
about something that takes a lifetime to understand. Perfect
for an island.

3. The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien — because I would want
something long, deeply imagined, and worth re-reading.
It invented the idea that a secondary world could have the
weight of a real one.

4. A blank journal — if that counts. I’d rather write than
run out of things to read.

Author Websites and Profiles

Gabrishas キエーザろーひ 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.

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Interview With Author Marie Kuipers

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
This is my first book! In hindsight, I realize that it’s been in the works for over a decade, but I never took the possibility of writing a book very seriously. I couldn’t imagine that anyone would want to hear about my weird-ass life–until I realized that it might help other people navigate their own weird-ass lives.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
It’s called We’re All Mad Here: an (in)elegant memoir. The title tips its hat to insanity, rage, a collective reckoning with our mental health…but it’s also an invitation: “Come on in! You’re probably not any weirder than the rest of us, but even if you are, we’re gonna celebrate you. We’re gonna love hard, cry a little, and laugh our asses off while we figure this out together.”

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Oh yeah, I’m a “lock myself in a room and not emerge until it’s done” kind of writer. At which point, I will emerge with manic energy (and an uncanny resemblance to Beetlejuice) asking, “How long was I under?”

What authors, or books have influenced you?
David Sedaris, always. I learned from him that mundane, everyday stories can be poignant, hilarious, and life-changing in the hands of a true wordsmith. Tom Robbins: A literary critic once said that Tom Robbins writes the way that Dolly Parton looks, and just – OMG. YES. Jenny Lawson, the OG Bloggess. Samantha Irby. Allie Brosh. Nick Hornby. I used to adore Neil Gaiman before he was outed as a sexual predator. Now I’m just pissed that he’s so good (and that I have principles).

What are you working on now?
At the moment, I’m back to my real job as a copyeditor (where I am affectionately [I think??] known as the Grammar Hammer). Working for the Man. I’d rather not discuss it. *silently screams*

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The best method would be my website https://www.mariekuipers.com/

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Hire a book coach. They will help you understand the importance of structure (you will hate it), and offer you advice and direction during the writing process. Whereas editors see your finished work (i.e., the thing you’ve poured all of your heart and soul and tears into) and then tell you why it’s terrible.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Let them.”

What are you reading now?
I’m reading the 934th installment of the Shadowhunters franchise. I can’t get enough. I’m a huge sucker for YA. Teen lit almost always has a happy ending and heaps of sequels. I get attached.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m in the scheming/plotting phase of the next book I want to write. It will require a lot of travel and time off work, so I’m also looking into how many organs I can sell without unaliving myself.

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?
Boy Friends by Michael Pederson, the first Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding, Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. I also have an enormous (like laundry-basket size) book of Shakespeare’s collected works, which is definitely coming with me. All the sonnets, all the plays. I could keep myself occupied by directing daring productions of Macbeth and Midsummer Night’s Dream featuring local talent (iguanas, sturgeon, pelicans, what have you). It’s gonna be lit.

Author Websites and Profiles

Marie Kuipers Website

Marie Kuipers Amazon Profile

Marie Kuipers’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.

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Interview With Author Z Zara

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Born and raised in Honolulu, I wasn’t really stewed in the arts like some other big cities. Reading and writing was always my escape from the realism of the world I lived in. I’ve ghostwritten novels, but never published my own… yet. I’m working on my first novel now after gaining some momentum from seeing the relative success of my first poetry book, “a natural disaster.” I’m a painfully slow writer when I really care about the work, so both of these books are years in the making. Some call it wanting perfection, but I call it wanting to be proud of my work. I can say that I’m extremely proud of “a natural disaster,” and teeing up to write a second edition, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“a natural disaster” is a reflection of how I see myself and the world around me. It has four parts that align with four natural elements: fire (inferno), water (flood), air (tornado), and earth (landslide). For the second edition, I want to incorporate another element, space. I’ve had my landslide moments that have made room for so much space, and my poetry reflects that.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure how unusual this is, but I keep a journal by my bedside just in case I wake up from a particularly interesting dream (or nightmare). My upcoming novel is inspired by a recurring dream I had. After having that dream for the third time, I had to write it down because I was certain it meant something. After pouring over my dreams, I realized a lot of it could be strung together in interesting ways that might resemble a novel with a little bit elbow grease. A lot of the points of tension come from my nightmares, which give me a reason to be thankful for them— a silver lining, I suppose. I also take lots of time in between writing sessions if I feel like my work is getting stale. Sometimes I have to drag myself to bed because I’m writing like I’m running out of time. I write where the wind takes me.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I feel so basic for having Jane Austen be my favorite author, but she’s a classic for a reason. When I ghostwrite romance, I do find my work echoes hers stylistically. I also see a lot of myself in Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He’s my novelist Dali. Dali has also been a great influence of mine in my visual art endeavors. Both Marquez and Dali opened my eyes to what art could be. I lime the idea of perfecting form while simultaneously breaking it. I try to achieve that with my poetry.

What are you working on now?
My first novel, Z22 (working title), won’t be out for a while, but I also write short stories on my Substack, WriteBiteZ.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
It’s been word of mouth for me. I travel the world and just start talking to people. I’ve gotten almost all my sales that way, but also a few through Instagram and Substack. I know there are better methods, and I like the idea of people knowing me through my work, so I’m trying to branch out.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I’m a new author myself, so I’m not sure what I could say. I think it’s important to have a circle of other writers to bounce ideas off of. I don’t have that right now, and I’m sorely in need of it as I write this novel.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I actually just heard this today on the audiobook of Daisy Jones & the Six. It’s quite fitting for pretty much any aspect of life. “I think you have to have faith in people before they earn it, otherwise it’s not faith.” Sometimes, you just need to have faith in yourself, even when you think you haven’t earned it.

What are you reading now?
The Vanishing Half, The Godfather, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being — I guess “The” is a big theme this month.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I don’t know. I’ve always said, “as soon as I make a plan, the gods laugh in my face.” I imagine living life in a little cottage, writing novels and poetry until the day I die. I couldn’t imagine myself happier.

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 Alchemist – Such a comfort read and so relatable
This is Paradise – The professor in college that really inspired me to take writing seriously wrote this book, and it so clearly outlines aspects of living in Hawaii that I would miss being on a desert island.

Author Websites and Profiles

Z Zara Website

Z Zara’s Social Media Links

Goodreads 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.

Interview With Author J.R. Blanes

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
J.R. Blanes is the author of the debut Southern Gothic Horror Novel, Portraits of Decay, released by Ruadan Books on October 21, 2025. His short fiction has been published by Tales to Terrify, The No Sleep Podcast, Allegory, Creepy, Macabre Magazine, among others. He lives in Chicago with his wife and their neurotic dog. When he’s not writing, his jamming on his bass or working as a legal assistant for an immigration law firm, assisting people with getting their green cards and naturalization. You can visit him at jrblanes.com or ruadanbooks.com

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Portraits of Decay is my debut novel. It was inspired by living part-time in New Orleans back when I worked for a private railroad company that traveled back-and-forth every week from Chicago to New Orleans. I fell in love with the city and it’s culture and folklore and I wanted to write a horror novel based there. I was also inspired by a conversation I had with a musician friend where we discussed what would happen if we could no longer create our art. If that was just taking away from us. As creativity is a huge part of my identity and spirit, I began to explore the idea of a character who has that taken away from him.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know if I’d call this habit, but I can pretty much write anywhere. I write in my home office. On the couch. At work on my lunchbreak. On the El train when I’m going to work. In coffee shops. Whenever and wherever the moods strikes–which is all the time. I’m constantly thinking about stories and ideas that I want to pursue. When I don’t have my computer, I type into a notepad on my phone.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Early on in my life, I was hugely influenced by Clive Barker. Reading his Books of Blood anthology opened my eyes to the possiblities that the horror genre offered. As someone who was already really into the Universal Monsters and Son of Svengoolie, this was the necessary next step I feel. Of course, even before Clive, I’d fallen in love with Edgar Allan Poe. He showed my the darkness, but Clive was the one who took me by the hand and led me in. I’ll forever be grateful to his writing for introducing to my love and passion of the horror genre.

What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on my third book while shopping my second book to agents/publishers. The third book takes place in Chicago and is a slasher-thriller during the time of the 80s punk rock scene there. It jumps between 1983 and the present time. Parts of it are written like a documentary.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My website is https://jrblanes.com/ I blog and promote reviews, interviews, and events along with my writing. I also promote on my social media pages, which you can connect to through my linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/jrblanes76
My publisher also promotes through their website: ruadanbooks.com

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be Yourself. Don’t try to copy other writers. Yes, it make take a long time to get noticed, but in the end, you’ll be happier when you write the books and stories you want to read. It’ll make your writing authentic and readers will gravitate toward that.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A sculptor is given the clay to make his statue. The author has to make his clay, which is the rough draft. Only once you have that draft can you begin to sculpt the story you want to tell. My oldest brother, Marc Kniola

What are you reading now?
Rebecca Baum’s The Brood and Emma E. Murray’s Shoot Me In The Face On A Beautiful Day

What’s next for you as a writer?
I will be at a few events: The Evansville Horrorcon and The Milwaukee Horrorcon

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?
Hex-Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Weaveworld-Clive Barker
Brother-Ania Ahlborn
The Reformatory-Tananarive Due

Author Websites and Profiles

J.R. Blanes Website

J.R. Blanes Amazon Profile

J.R. Blanes’s Social Media Links

Goodreads Profile

Facebook Profile

Twitter Account

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Interview With Author Leon Matsimela

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
​”I am a financial literacy advocate and the author of Smart Money Habits. My conviction in the market’s power to change lives isn’t academic—it’s born from my background in retail trading. I’ve seen how the markets work from the inside, and I’ve made it my mission to translate those complex maneuvers into the daily habits that build lasting, generational wealth.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
​My perspective is forged from my direct background in retail trading, where I learned firsthand the mechanics of the market and the discipline required to navigate its volatility. Unlike many who approach finance from a purely academic standpoint, my insights are rooted in the practical realities. Smart Money Habits is my first book.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
While the markets can be chaotic, my process is the opposite. I find my flow writing to smooth lounge music, bringing a sense of calm and clarity to a subject that often feels overwhelming to others. My goal is to take the complex world of finance and turn it into a steady, rhythmic path toward wealth.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My work is heavily influenced by the transformative philosophies of authors such as Robert Kiyosaki, Dr. Spencer Johnson, Prince S. Logie, and Chika Onyeani. Their focus on mindset, adaptability, and radical self-reliance mirrors my own mission: to empower others to move beyond mere saving and into the intentional cultivation of wealth-building habits.

What are you working on now?
Beyond the Smart Money Habits series, I am currently developing a financial literacy app designed specifically for children. By translating complex market mechanics into interactive, habit-forming tools, I aim to equip the next generation with the “Spider-Web” economic mindset and the practical skills necessary to achieve lifelong financial independence.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
To ensure maximum impact, I champion a strategic approach for new authors that prioritizes deep research into specific niches and leverages robust promotional platforms like Amazon, Book Bounty, and BookDoggy to build the essential social proof required for long-term authority.

Do you have any advice for new authors?

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
He who hesitates is lost

What are you reading now?
​Indaba, My Children by Credo Mutwa (1964)
​This is his masterpiece. It is a massive collection of Zulu history, African mythology, and folklore.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To ensure maximum impact, I champion a strategic approach for new authors that prioritizes deep research into specific niches

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 Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Billionaire Boy by David Walliams

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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.