Awesome Author Interviews

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Over the years, I’ve held a number of jobs including telemarketing, secretary, and answering service operator. I’ve always written stories, but until I began writing the Westward Series, I hadn’t been serious about my craft. Finally, after a lot of encouragement by my family and friends, I decided to take the plunge and begin publishing those stories. There are 23 books in the Montana Mail Order Bride series and there are currently 7 books in my Echo Canyon Brides series, which is still ongoing.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The current book is titled Montana Orphan and there is really no event that inspired it. Since it’s the next book in the Echo Canyon Brides series, it builds upon the events from the last book and introduces some new characters as well.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I do have some unique writing habits in that I never use an outline. I always say that I have this creative door in my head. Characters walk up to this door, knock, and come in. They sit down, introduce themselves, and tell me what they’re like. I develop them from there, but they lead me where they want to go and sometimes we argue. Yes, I know how that sounds, but it’s true. I’ve tried to write with an outline, but the characters never go where I originally thought they would. Other than that, I don’t do anything odd. I have no strange rituals or anything like that.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve always enjoyed Nora Roberts because her characters are vivid and she doesn’t get bogged down with a lot of description that slows down the story. So I guess I sort of emulate her style of writing somewhat. I’m an avid Stephen King fan and I love the way he inserts humor into his scariest stories, so I try to do that, too.

What are you working on now?
I just sent the latest Echo Canyon Brides book off to the editor and I’m now writing the first book of my new series, The Dawson Chronicles, which is a spin off of the Montana Mail Order Bride series. My readers have been greatly missing the Westward characters and I always listen to my readers because without them, I’m nothing. The Dawson Series is a fresh take on our Westward friends and deals with the younger crowd who are ready for their own romances and adventures.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Bookbub is a tremendous place to promote my books and they’ve been very good to me. Also, my Facebook fan page is very popular and I’ve created pages for some of my characters where my fans can “talk” to their favorite characters and have fun with them.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read and write every day. Even if what you write is garbage, write. It’s the only way to hone your craft. Take risks and don’t be afraid to roam outside of your comfort zone. Stretch yourself as a writer and be ruthless when you edit. Cut out things that don’t go with your story lines, but don’t get rid of it. Save it because it might come in handy somewhere else down the line where it might fit better.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t listen to the reviews that aren’t constructive. It’ll only discourage you and prevent you from writing. Develop a thick skin so that you can continue. Own your mistakes and go on and do better.

What are you reading now?
I have just finished the Shelter of Stones by Jean M. Auel and it was a wonderful book.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have enough on my plate for now with alternating between two series, but at some point in the future, I plan on writing an all Lakota romance series because my readers have fallen in love with their culture the same way I have. It will make me a better writer because it’s something I’ve never done and that’s a good thing.

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, boy. That’s a hard one. The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub would definitely be on that list. The Black Stallion, and almost anything by Nora Roberts.

Author Websites and Profiles
Linda Bridey Website
Linda Bridey Amazon Profile
Linda Bridey Author Profile on Smashwords

Linda Bridey’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written eight contemporary romance books and one crime novel (but we won’t talk about that!). 🙂 Most of my books are set in a small Scottish town so the same characters pop up in each one. Although they are connected, you can read each as a stand alone novel.

Here’s some info about me:
5 random things about me:

1. I accidentally mooned a crowd at a Bolivian wedding.
2. I’ve been chased by a gang of baboons. And I mean gang. They were organised and vicious. All that was missing was their leather jackets and tattoos!
3. I wrote my first novel when I was 22. It was a cross between Star Wars, Monsters Inc. and Tinkerbelle. Funnily enough, no one wanted to publish it. Odd that…
4. I was a portrait artist on the streets of Amsterdam for a time.
5. I worked night shift as a security guard at Stirling Castle in Scotland while I was in college. The castle was on a terrorist hit-list back then. To defend it they gave me a flashlight, a two-way radio that only worked one-way and made me wear a polyester A-line skirt…

Apart from that, I am a Scot, living in New Zealand and married to a Dutch man. I have two little girls, too many animals and a Pepsi-Max addiction.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called Bad Boy – it’s number 5 in my interconnected series of stand alone novels. It’s about a professional footballer who’s injured out of his career and doesn’t know what to do with himself, so he goes home to Scotland. He buys a piece of land next to young widow and single mother, Abby. Then proceeds to make a complete pest of himself! The idea for the book came to me after reading one too many stories about David Beckham. Not that I’m obsessed, or a crazy stalker or anything. I mean everyone has Beckham wallpaper in their bedroom…right?

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write all of my sex scenes to Alive and Kicking by Simple Minds. Don’t ask why. I really don’t know! 🙂

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Susan Elizabeth Phillps is an amazing contemporary romance writer and an early influence on my work. Oh and Janet Evanovich. I remember reading her first Stephanie Plum book when it just came out and thinking it was the funniest thing I’d ever read. It still makes me laugh. Janet is a master of comic timing. Now I love to read Kresley Cole’s books for the humour and the fantastic characters and Nalini Singh because that woman knows how to write!

What are you working on now?
A new off shoot series featuring the men of Benson Security, the firm that’s based in Scotland in my books and run by an ex-SAS guy. And I’m also working on the next in my Invertary series, Caught. Which I think might be the last in that series – there are just so many hot, rich men one town can sustain!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This one! 🙂 🙂

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be yourself. Work hard. Don’t compare yourself to others. Strive to be better every day and don’t edit the life out of your work!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Writing wise it has to be from Nora Roberts. She says writing is a job, stop waiting for the muse, get your bum in your chair and do your job. 🙂

What are you reading now?
A book on mummies. Seriously! I’m also waiting eagerly for Kresley Cole’s latest 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 bible – because it has everything, stories, humour, good advice and it’s pretty long so it’d last a while! Judas Child by Carol O’Connell, a terrifying crime novel that’s so well written it makes my heartache with envy. Dream a little dream, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips because it’s an amazing romance, a funny story and has great characters. And War and Peace, because if I’m stuck on a desert island I might actually have the time to get through that book!

Author Websites and Profiles
janet elizabeth henderson Website
janet elizabeth henderson Amazon Profile
janet elizabeth henderson Author Profile on Smashwords

janet elizabeth henderson’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I grew up in Memphis TN, and now live in Malibu, CA. I am the author of “A Portal in Time,: which is a paranormal mystery written in two time periods and set in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, and of “Dancing to an Irish Reel,” which is fiction, set on the western coast of Ireland. I write for magazines, am a 4 time award winning essayist, and a 5 time contributer to the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Dancing to an Irish Reel,: which is fiction set on the western coast of Ireland. I was inspired to write this novel after spending a year in Connemara, Ireland. Here is the book synopsis: On sabbatical from her job in the LA record business, Hailey Crossan takes a trip to Ireland for the vacation of a lifetime. What she unexpectedly finds is a job offer too good to turn down, so she stays.
Her life in Ireland is stimulating and eye-opening, but it comes with one complication—Liam Hennessey. He’s a famous Irish musician whose entire life revolves around performing, so when he meets Hailey, he is so unbalanced over his attraction that he can’t decide whether to come closer or run away. And so begins the push and pull of Hailey and Liam’s budding romance. It is a lyrical and sensitive dance enriched by colorful Irish friends, in the vibrant town of Galway. Hailey’s new friends help her navigate the cultural nuances of the west of Ireland, and serve as interpreters in her budding romance with Liam, all set in a breathtaking landscape with more charm and character than any place Hailey ever imagined.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No, just a strong commitment to the process, which takes a daily investment and a lot of morning coffee.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love the author Pat Conroy, and his novel, “The Prince of Tides” is my all time favorite book. I love reading Southern authors. Anne Rivers Siddons is another favorite of mine, as is Johathan Odell.

What are you working on now?
I am putting the final touches on my 3rd novel, which is a Southern family saga set in 1970’s Memphis. It is a sins of the father, cause and effect story.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I love twitter, FB, WordPress, about.me and Google+ My website is www.clairefullerton.com. I go to all my social media sites a few times every day and post as well as comment on others pages.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Go over your book’s first draft again and again, until you know it is in its best shape, that there are no mistakes, and that everything is cohesive. Find out which publishers are interested in your books’ genre and submit by following their guidelines. If you are looking for an agent first, the same rules apply.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“An author’s career is a marathon, not a sprint.” Dawn Carrington of Vinspire Publishing was the first to tell me this.

What are you reading now?
“Peachtree Road” by Anne Rivers Siddons

What’s next for you as a writer?
To find a home for my 3rd 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?
1. The Prince of Tides” by Pat Conroy
2. “Peachtree Road” by Anne Rivers Siddons
3. “South of Broad” by Pat Conroy

Author Websites and Profiles
Claire Fullerton Website
Claire Fullerton Amazon Profile

Claire Fullerton’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
It has been a long time since I started writing my first book as a teenager. That unfinished work, inspired by a creative desire, was written on a simple pad of paper, then lost, but never quite forgotten. The creative seed remained, dormant, neglected and hidden somewhere in the recesses of a fertile mind. A business career took precedence, along with constructing a life. Then something happened, an incident that could have caused injury or cost lives reignited the spark, and what took shape over the subsequent years emerged as not one, but two books titled Dangerous Perceptions: The Road To Nowhere, and the sequel, Unintended Consequences.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The title of the second book is; Dangerous Perception: Unintended Consequences
It is the sequel to Dangerous Perceptions: The Road To Nowhere.
The Road To Nowhere provided the background to the characters and told the story of how they came into contact with one another under unusual circumstances.
The inspiration for writing the second book came from ideas of where the story would lead, and the reactions of the characters developed in the first book to pursuing opportunities to change their lives.
The Road To Nowhere sets the stage. Unintended Consequences is the dramatic unfurling of events unleashed as a result.
Men and women returning to civilian life after years in uniform often have an extremely difficult time adapting. They are suddenly alone, adrift and purposeless. These books are an exploration of what it’s like to be in their shoes, and of the fortitude, determination and desire to reclaim their lives.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can’t claim to know what is ‘usual’ to know if anything I do is unusual.
I am a developer of characters, and through them the writing process evolves in a way that is natural, fluid and constantly changing. No one knows where decisions will lead, there is only an expectation that doesn’t always pan out. And when it fails to develop as envisioned I rework the scene and the direction until it does. That’s my process.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Michael Robotham, Terry Hayes, Brad Thor, Ben Coes, Nigel Tranter.

What are you working on now?
Right now I am working on a thriller skewed toward an interesting detective involved in a most unusual crime. This book has been exciting for me to write, firstly because it is a complete departure from the first two novels, and secondly due to the settings and characters that populate the pages.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Good question. So far I haven’t discovered the answer. But if I were pressed to provide a website where I have high expectations for success I’d have to go with Awesomegang.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Follow your dream, try, give it your best shot and see where it leads. But don’t give up your day job. Being an author isn’t easy; it’s only the writing of the book that’s relatively easy. After you do that then the real work begins, and that starts with editing, over and over until you get it right. Then do it again, because it won’t be. Writing is a lonely process, and for most who try, the simply truth is that it won’t translate into success.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t get to your last day on earth and know that there was something you always wanted to do, but didn’t even try.

I didn’t hear that from anyone, that’s my best advice.

What are you reading now?
I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Promotion of the first two book is a top priority. As soon as they start gaining momentum I’ll switch back to the third book. There is a fourth that is well underway and in need of further development. So lots of things in the pipeline.

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 survival manual would be number one.
Number two would be… The biggest book I could find. I’d burn it to get a passing ship’s attention.
Number three would be my unfinished works. It would give me something to do.
The last book would be a book of jokes, humorous stories and inspirational tales.

Author Websites and Profiles
Stuart Murray Website

Stuart Murray’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi! I’m Victoria, and I’m currently responsible for five published novels, a handful of graphic novels, and a few manuscripts that are still in the works. I live in the Waikato region of New Zealand (think Hobbiton meets Mount Doom with a biiiiiig lake thrown in for spice), where I run a small shop and write full time.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I have one coming out soon called At First Blush, and that’s probably the one with the most interesting back story to it: it was inspired by a series of recurring dreams I’ve had since I was a child. Ever since I was about ten or eleven years old, I’ve dreamed that I’m sitting on the beach waiting for my love to come back to me. Writing the book was an act of catharsis for me, but it was also quite difficult on an emotional level. I wrote the first draft of At First Blush more than two years ago now, and it’s taken me this long to work up the courage to finally release it to the world. It was available briefly in 2013, but I had a freak-out and pulled it down again. Re-writes are done and I’m finally feeling good about it, so it’s gone to the editor for a thorough scrubbing before I finally re-release it again. Fingers crossed!

Oh, and funnily enough… ever since I wrote the story down, the dreams have stopped.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Oh yeah. I’m a total pantser (or as I prefer to call it, 100% organic). That means I plan pretty much nothing before I begin, and mould the story like clay as it’s progressing, going back and tweaking things if I have to, changing places and names if I get a better idea later, so on, so forth. I simply can’t plan. As soon as I know how the book is going to end, I lose interest in the project and move on to another idea.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jennifer Fallon has had the biggest personal influence over my early career. We met in 2007, long before I published my first novel, and then we met again while I was touring the South Island of New Zealand in 2014 after publishing my first book. Her advice has been invaluable to my career, and also inspired me to reach out and offer a helping hand to other young authors. Though you do see the occasional catfight between authors, as a general rule it’s a very close-knit, supportive, and friendly community. I love it, and really enjoy being part of it.

Other authors that have inspired me on a less personal level are Raymond E. Feist, Gaylene Gordon, and Michael Turner.

I got addicted to Feist’s books when I was quite young, and reading his backstory made me feel like I had a chance to make a go of it, too. Though as an adult I can see the flaws in the world he built, when I was a teenager I saw nothing but a shining beacon of hope that I, too, could one day become an author like him. That meant so much to me.

Gaylene Gordon was a local author, who unfortunately passed away just a few years before I discovered she existed, and yet her YA novels still remain amongst my favourite books even though they’re so short I can devour them in a couple of hours. She showed me that I could have a positive effect on young people around me, particularly those dreaming of turning the written word into a career. It still upsets me that I never had a chance to tell her how much she meant to me. I just hope one day I can make other young creatives feel the same way she made me feel.

Michael Turner wasn’t technically an author so much as a graphic novelist, but he inspired me much the same as the other people mentioned above. Though he was flawed, he still managed to find success through courage, determination, and pure stubbornness. Sadly, he passed away in 2008 after a long, painful battle with bone cancer, and the world is a less beautiful place without him. May he rest in peace.

What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on the next book in my Immortelle series, under the pen name Abigail Hawk. It’s a delightfully smutty paranormal/political/action novel, set in modern Russia. Finishing my post-apocalyptic series, The Survivors, took a great emotional toll on me, and The Immortelle series is much more light-hearted. It’s helping me to recover, slowly but surely.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Honestly? Facebook. I’m just so bad at marketing, so I focus on talking to people and let the rest sort itself out.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you don’t want it to be critiqued, don’t publish it. As soon as you hit the publish button it’s going out to the world, for better or for worse, and anyone could see. People say horrible things. If you’re emotionally sensitive about the work, and the thought of someone hating it or saying something bad hurts you, then just don’t publish it. Publish something that you’re not as close to, and come back to the sensitive book later in your career, when you’ve developed a thicker skin – which you will, because like I said, people say horrible things. Dealing with criticism is part and parcel of your job as an author.

The other important thing is that you need to be able to be prolific. If it takes you five years to write each novel, then you’ll probably never be able to turn it into a career. In my personal experience, you need to be able to put out a new book every 3-6 months if you want to make a decent income off it – and six months is pushing it. 3-4 months is better, or so I hear from authors more successful than me!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Exactly what I just wrote in the last box! Goodness knows I’m still struggling to learn it.

What are you reading now?
…Nothing, because I’m a terrible person. I’ve just been too exhausted. I currently have three books on my “to read” shelf: The Watchmen (the graphic novel), Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets (because I’ve never read them before, and I enjoyed the first book), and The Regent’s Gamble by my good friends, A. Payne & N. D. Taylor.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve been in a state of deep creative depression since finishing The Survivors in February, and I’m only just getting to the point where I can write again. So, for the moment, I’m just recovering and slowly poking away at my existing projects while my muse digs her head out of the sand.

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 Empire Trilogy, by Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts. I could read that series over and over and over, and still find something new each time.

Author Websites and Profiles
Victoria (V. L.) Dreyer Website
Victoria (V. L.) Dreyer Amazon Profile

Victoria (V. L.) Dreyer’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My romance novels and a resource for writers have spent time on the Amazon Top 10 lists. My goal is to bring to life heartwarming stories that embody realistic plots with an uplifting message, giving readers a sweet and warmly satisfying sense of love and hope.

I amis the author of the Sweet Home, Texas series – Garrett; Gabriel, and Holden, numerous sweet contemporary and inspirational works; a short read with several other Prism Book Group authors, A Blizzard Wedding; many resources for writers in my Fiction Fashion series, a book of devotionals for writers, 45 Devotionals for Christian Writers, and several children’s books. I’t’s been a pleasure to have been featured at eReader News Today, Daily Cheap Reads, Working Writers and Bloggers, Books for Book Lovers, Book Goodies, Goodreads, and Christian eBooks Today. I’m an active member of the East Texas Writers Association and a regular guest speaker, presenting mini-workshops on plotting structure, drafting a novel in 30 days, and the layering process.

In addition to writing novels, I’m an elementary school teacher. Maybe that’s where my teaching spirit comes from. My husband, Chip, and I are patrons of the arts, especially fine arts and music. We also enjoy the outdoors and frequently go off-roading, canoeing, barge riding on Caddo Lake, and camping.

I’m a devoted mother to two precious little girls, Rebekah and Ella, and spend a majority of my time creating memories with them. We live in East Texas, near the Louisiana border.

I’ve had experience presenting to groups small to large on various topics on the craft of writing. I’ve authored over 15 books, six of which are published. My books are available in print and eBook formats.

You might have seen me…

on YouTube
Facebook
ETWA (East Texas Writers Association)
NETWO (Northeast Texas Writers Organization)
ETWG (East Texas Writers Guild)

I’m completely in love with the writing process and dedicated to helping others achieve their publishing dreams! Writing is my ministry, and I’m blessed every day in this business.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Revision Runway, a nonfiction guide for fiction writers. It was inspired by years of research and was used as a promotional piece for my speaking engagements. Now all writers can have access to this valuable information. Here’s how it all began…

One thing I noticed several years back is the term “layering.” This sent me on an internet search to learn more about it. What I discovered is that there isn’t a website out there with information dedicated to the process of layering that I could find. Instead, I followed links to many authors’ websites where they mentioned it briefly. Each author had one or more items on their layering checklist. It wasn’t enough. I wanted a comprehensive list for layering. Alas, none existed. So I created my own. I’ve been sharing the information with authors all over Texas for several years. Layering really can make the difference between talking heads and submission ready text.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m very old-fashioned. I use a tickler file to keep track of all my writing and promotion activities…even housework. The tickler file resides in a plastic crate that I’ve adapted into a mobile office. You can see a video of my mobile office and tickler file system on my channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxajLm0xqDXW21eU-ZeyjQ

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve followed Shelley Hitz for several years, and now she’s my writing and marketing coach via the Author Audience Academy. She has many books on writing and marketing that I love and use as references often.

What are you working on now?
I’m heading back to fiction land for awhile. There are two more books to go in my Sweet Home, Texas series, and I’m determined to wrap that up in 2016. The last two Hearth brothers, Henry and Eli, have waited long enough to have their stories told.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
There’s nothing comparable to harnessing the power of Amazon. Shelley Hitz at Author Audience Academy guides authors through the complicated marketing maze with easy to follow, step-by-step videos, checklists, and action steps. I encourage any author at any level to check out the Author Audience Academy.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice for new authors is to give plotting a try and set up systems for planning, writing, editing, revising, submitting, publishing, and marketing now that help them build a brand and a career that will carry them through.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I’ve ever heard is, “put your butt in the seat and write.” That goes right along with a much older quote: “I can fix a bad page, but I can’t fix a blank one.” To put it simply, just write. It’s easy to get lost in all the information the web has to offer. Write first. Worry about all that afterward.

What are you reading now?
Did I mention I was old-fashioned. In the eighties (when I was a child), my grandmother and I watched Murder She Wrote every week. On a recent trip to the dollar store, I came across a book based on the series….or is it vice versa. Anywho, I’m reading Murder, She Wrote: A Fatal Feast. Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday!

What’s next for you as a writer?
I pray a lot about this, for success…just enough to pay the bills. Like most writers, I know. Honestly, my prayer is to turn my passion into a profession. I’ve started writing nonfiction, so I plan to meander between the fiction and nonfiction. I’m working on booking more speaking engagements. I have a teacher’s spirit, so helping other writers achieve success in a priority, too.

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 carry-on would include: 1) 45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt, 2) Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schmidt, 3 & 4) thick, blank journals to write in. A writer’s gotta do what a writer’s gotta do!

Author Websites and Profiles
Jayna Morrow Website
Jayna Morrow Amazon Profile

Jayna Morrow’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a mom of three boys (one of which is my husband, and I tell him he’s my biggest “problem child”). I’ve been married twenty-four years November 2015, and I love him more now than I did the day I married him. I’m a mom to 3 dogs, a dachshund, chihuahua, and great dane. My oldest son says I’m a “freak”, which I take as a compliment. And I collect skulls, as well as crosses.

I’ve published 10 books and have 3 more that’ll never see the light of day! They’re awful and would require too much editing to get them polished enough to publish. My editor might quit if I asked her to do this. I write a paranormal series (horromance as I’ve dubbed it because it’s a mix of horror and romance) called the Road to Hell series. I also write paranormal erotic romances, dark gothic romances, contemporary rock star romances (Hot Wired series), and I just completed my first dystopian romance.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Lie to Me is the book I just finished writing. One thing didn’t inspire it, but it was a story that’d been simmering in my mind for years. After publishing my last book in August, I turned to this book and wrote Lie to Me with ease, loving every minute of the journey. These characters are so real to me, alive in a way other characters haven’t been. That makes for an exciting journey.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think so. I write when I can, but mostly during the day. I have a problem pulling myself out of the book world and rejoining reality. When I’m in my head, it’s hard to grab my attention and I can’t tell you how many times my boys have asked if I’m listening to them or if I’m talking to my characters. My family thinks it’s weird that I have a muse–Dom–who I emphatically argue is real and not imaginary. I joke Dom and I are spending the day together or we’re pausing from writing to eat lunch. My oldest son says I make it sound like I have a boyfriend. I enjoy teasing my family on with my “freakiness”. lol

What authors, or books have influenced you?
The first romance I read was The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss. If my grandmother hadn’t given me that book to read, I don’t know when I would’ve fallen in love with romance. I also read a lot of horror books growing up, and watched a lot of supernatural shows, so mixing the two seemed natural. But mostly I just looooove writing romance because I love to fall in love. And no two characters fall in love the same way, the experience is different for each of them.

What are you working on now?
Bama Girl Blues, which is book 3 in the Hot Wired series. It’s my contemporary rock star romance series and is my best seller. Who hasn’t fallen in love with a rock star at some point in their life? As a teen my wall was covered with posters of rock stars. There’s something alluring about the rebellious rock star that makes them fun to write.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I promote on a lot of blogs, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I have a big group of readers that help promote too, but the best promotion is word of mouth. If readers aren’t telling others to read you, then no amount of marketing helps a whole lot.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write what you love, write with passion, and write scared. Some of the best stories I’ve written I wrote scared because the characters made choices I wasn’t comfortable with, but it was their story to tell not mine. Also, if you can’t take criticism, then get out of the writing industry while you’re ahead. Not everyone is going to like what you write. A social media rant on how the reviewer was wrong is only going to hurt your career rather than help it. I also recommend engaging with readers on social media. I’m shy and an introvert, but readers love to get to know the author that writes the books they love. And I love the feedback I get from them, while getting to know them. Some of my favorite readers have become social-media friends, who I hope to meet someday.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best marketing advice I received when I published my first book was to write more books. It’s true. If you have a backlog of books and someone loves the first book they pick up by you, they’ll run to grab the rest.

What are you reading now?
Nothing at the moment. I’m writing and when I write, I rarely read because I don’t have time to write, read, and micromanage family and housework. So I guess you could say I’m reading my own book Lie to Me because it’s in the edits phase.

What’s next for you as a writer?
More in the Hot Wired series, as I have 3 more books slated for the series. I have another series that’s simmering in my mind that I’ll probably breathe some life into it in 2016.

I’ll be signing books and hanging out with readers at TNEE in April 2016 and AAD in August 2016, so if you’re planning on going there, look me up! I’d love to meet you. At TNEE I’ll be hosting a Speakeasy party with a group of authors, so it’ll be a fun trip.

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?
That’s a tough question. I have so many authors I love. I’m gonna pick one psy book by Nalini Singh, an MC book by Joanna Wylde, and any book by Ann Mayburn or Lexi Blake. Otherwise, I’ll probably spend most of the time conjuring up my own daydreams.

Author Websites and Profiles
Gracen Miller Website
Gracen Miller Amazon Profile
Gracen Miller’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hey! I’m a quirky girl who enjoys strange facts and putting love and magical fantastical things in all my fiction. In addition to being an author, I’m a wife and mother of two beautiful children, and I love helping others when I can.

I have several books:

Skye’s Lure: A tale of a mermaid who wants to see land, and the man she saves whose actions could put her entire race in danger.

Arctic Discovery (trying to get traditionally published) – A contemporary sci-fi with thriller and romance elements. A pair of historical linguists with opposing personalities have to work together to learn about an ancient tower in Antarctica, and then to protect the survivor it produces.

Call Her Forth (in revisions) – A romantic tale about a man who starts dreaming about the woman of his dreams, but struggles with the temptations of real life.

My Natural Birth Story, a personal memoir about what it took to birth my first child naturally and what I learned in the process.

5 Degrees of Separation (Writing) – A series of tales from the witnesses who directly affect the leader of a group of teens suddenly imbued with magic.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Skye’s Lure is the latest available book. I was inspired when I watched the Mermaid: The Body Found on the Discovery channel. I totally believed it was true for about a day, but my mind kept spinning ideas about how humans could have become mermaids, and so Skye’s Lure was born.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Well, since I have two small children, I tend to type one-handed a lot. And it’s usually with my left hand, and I’m right-handed! It’s not a habit, exactly, but it’s interesting – and it can create some interesting typos. 🙂

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read so many books as a youth, I don’t even know. The authors that stand out in my mind the most are C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and more recently Stephenie Myer and J.K. Rowling. I’ve also had the pleasure of connecting with some incredible authors – Olivia Folmar Ard, Laine Cunningham, and Rebecca Enzor, to name a few.

What are you working on now?
Always so much to work on. I’m writing short stories for contests, 5 Degrees of Separation, and revising my first full novel, Call Her Forth.

The 5 Degrees of separation story is my baby at the moment. I’m writing it from five different perspectives. They’re all influential people in the life of the ring leader of the boys who get magic. Unfortunately, the ring leader has good intentions for their newfound power, but it all goes horribly awry. He’s a bit angry as well, which doesn’t help the situation. It’s a really fun tale to tell, and I’m excited for the potential to get readers thinking about some deep themes – without being blatant or preachy, of course.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ll let you know when I find out. 🙂 I hope to create the perfect storm with Skye’s Lure. I’ve done a lot of research on how to format, position, and get the word out, so fingers crossed it makes some headway.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Love writing. It’s not an easy or feel-good career, especially when you’re standing in the corner of a crowded market trying to get traction. And it will probably take a while before you can even think about monetizing it, so don’t quite your day job. Be yourself, and love writing. If you’re doing what you love, you’ll put your heart into it, and you’ll keep trying, even when you fail – and failure is pretty much inevitable at some point.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Keep writing. The more you write and read, the better you’ll get, so keep on writing. Oh, and first drafts always suck. 🙂

What are you reading now?
I came across an author through a service I offer – G.B. Brulte – and he had a free promo on Coronado Dreaming. It looked interesting, so I snagged it. He writes stories that in the vein of my own train of thought, so it’s interesting to see how he spins things.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing, writing, and more writing. 🙂 Seriously, though. I have so many stories in my head – stories about magic and love and different worlds and dangerous artifacts. They keep swirling in my head, and as soon as I get one out, I get an idea for another.

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 journal (and pen, of course), so I could keep writing, the Bible, and the Mortal Instruments series (if it’s a box set, that can count as one book, right?) – I haven’t read that one yet, but after watching the movie I desperately want to. A desert island sounds kinda nice at the moment. Anyone have one? 😀

Author Websites and Profiles
Angel Leya Website
Angel Leya Amazon Profile

Angel Leya’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
D. Alyce Domain. Is a long-time lover of creative fiction. She learned to read with Dr. Seuss, grew up reading Sweet Valley High, James Howe, and Lois Duncan, and graduated to category romance with Harlequin and Silhouette in her teen years. Ms. Domain started out writing fan-fiction after her favorite fictional characters met with death and cancellation on network television. Inspired by the entertaining, multi-layered storylines created by so many female romance, young adult and television writers, she began to experiment with her own characters. Coupled with her own unique brand of genre-bending romantic fiction, Ms. Domain was able to create a whole new world within the pages of her books.

Ms. Domain was born and raised in Houston, Texas, the youngest daughter of Charles and Eunice Domain. She has one older sister. She earned a BS in Biochemistry from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and a MS in Biomedical Sciences from The UT Graduate School for Biomedical Science in Houston. She worked in Patient-Based Biological Research before switching careers and opening her own fashion boutique, The Aesthetic Domain. In addition to fashion apparel and accessories, she sells her own original jewelry creations and runs the Boutique & Blog website, which is based in Houston, Texas. Ms. Domain also has avid interests in inspirational music, art/entertainment, and history.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Well, Dominic’s Nemesis was born of my love of Gothic novels and dark paranormal romance. I like Gothic stories but there’s not a lot of good Gothic romance out there. Most of the really good ones were written by classic authors who are deceased. Phantom of the Opera, Rebecca, The Count of Monte Cristo, Jane Eyre (and anything written by Poe). The modern Gothics are hit & miss…they’re also few and far in between. So I figured I’d write my own. Right about this time, paranormals were coming into their own…and I saw them as lesser Gothics. (No insult intended) What I mean is that they have many of the same elements, but paranormals usually have better endings…the hero is always redeemable, the couple always end up together, and the bad guy gets his at the end. In Gothics things sometimes end gloomy. (which honestly, I don’t mind, but it can get depressing after awhile.) So, I decided to write a kinda genre bender that has all the good elements of 3 romantic sub-genres (Paranormal, Gothic, Historical) and Dominic’s Nemesis was born.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not sure. I mean what is considered unusual in the mind of a writer? I will describe my process and you be the judge if its unusual or not.

Things start off a little shaky. I’m generally at the track, running….or asleep…or washing dishes or something…when an idea or an interesting character hits me. I drop whatever I’m doing to write it down. (There are notebooks of varying shapes, sizes, and colors all over the house filled with random ideas of mine.) Most of these ideas go nowhere or they end up as one great line in a book that I’m already working on. If the idea continues to nag at me and I get a good two or three pages of cohesive ideas together, I’ll write a summery (again, sketchy.) If I’m still interested in it after I’m done with the summary, I do some character bios to nail down personality traits, history and what not. If I do this, I’m vested. Next up is the outline for the plot…(Who does what when…the timeline, yadda, yadda, yadda). Then, after that’s done. I start Chapter 1…or in some cases a prologue.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Authors who influences me: Edgar Allan Poe, Christine Feehan, Daphne Du Maurier, (all the great Gothic Fiction writers.) And some Paranormal Authors, particularly Nalini Singh. Historical Romance Author: Lisa Kleypas (Queen of the love scene)

Books that have influences me: Rebecca, The Count of Monte Cristo, Feehan’s Dark Series and the Scarlotti Curse, anything written by Poe.

What are you working on now?
Two projects actually

1. A sequel to Dominic’s Nemesis. Placeholder title is Nemesis 2. Its not evolved enough for me to attach a permanent title to it…yet.

2. Calamity Jones – Contemporary African-American romantic comedy novel. I’m basically done writing it…currently in editing hell.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
As a new indie, self-published author (1st book just published in November 2015), I can’t really say. I have no point of reference. Possibly my author website & Blog.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do extensive Character Bios on all the major players in your story…at the very least, the main couple. Their personalities and points of attractions (and all that jazz) have to be nailed down before you start writing. Its so hard to create a believable Hero/heroine if you as the writer don’t know them that well. There should be a bible of Bios that you work from.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I read some writing advice that Stephan King wrote. It has to do with deleting the first chapter or two of your book to see if it really changes anything. If you can still read the book and don’t really miss anything by leaving off the first chapter or so…that means you don’t need it and you should leave it off. Just slows down the story. I did this for my current book, Dominic’s Nemesis. The published chapter 1 was originally chapter 2…I deleted chapter 1 after, I read the book without it and didn’t miss it.

What are you reading now?
Just finished Veronica Roth’s Divergent series.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Well, I’m currently working on a five or six book paranormal romance series…The Ambrosi Legacy. That should keep me busy for a while. Not sure where I will go from there.

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 geez, here goes…
Lisa Kleypas: Then Came You
Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo
Jane Austen: Pride & Prejudice
Janet Evanovich: One For the Money (Hilarious!)

Author Websites and Profiles
D. Alyce Domain Website
D. Alyce Domain Amazon Profile
D. Alyce Domain Author Profile on Smashwords

D. Alyce Domain’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is AR DeClerck. I’m a wife and mother of two daughters and I write adventure romance novels. Currently I have 6 novels published through Nevermore Press and Raven’s Seduction Press. I write science fiction romance and Steampunk romance novels.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest novel is Alchemist’s Kiss. Alchemist’s Kiss came around because I thought up the names of the two main characters and immediately knew I had to write about Icarus Kane and Archimedes Merriweather. I knew they were best friends from Victorian England, and Archimedes had some clockwork parts. From that point on everything about Alchemist’s Kiss snowballed into a rip-roaring magical steampunk adventure romance novel.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
When I write I always wear my headphones and turn on my Spotify, but I like the television on as well. Something about the flickering lights in the background is soothing for me. I also like it if my dog lays on my feet while I type. (Her fur is very soft and soothing!)

What authors, or books have influenced you?
When I was young the first book and author that made me really think about the world and the universe was Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time saga. Her characters were so vivid and well drawn and they left a major impression. I knew one day I wanted to make readers feel what Madeline made me feel.

I also love Nalini Singh, and her romance novels inspire the kind of feelings in me that I hope to inspire in my readers as well.

What are you working on now?
A sequel to Alchemist’s Kiss called Enchanter’s Embrace. This is Archie’s story, and it’s time for my clockwork man to finally find his one true love!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve found that interaction with blogs and readers is the best promotion. I like to talk to people and make friends and really TALK about my books. What do readers love? What do they hate? Which characters touched their lives?

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Never give up. It’s a long, hard road but the joy of putting a story in someone’s hands and transporting them someplace else is an experience that’s worth all the hard work.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write for you. Publish for them.

What are you reading now?
I’m currently working on book 4 of the A’yen’s Legacy series by Rachel L. Smith and Spark Awakening by Kate Corcino (an ARC that will be well worth the wait for anyone who read her Spark Rising novel!)

What’s next for you as a writer?
Write, write write. I plan to concentrate on scifi and steampunk romance and I hope to continue to put out stories readers love to read.

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?
Heart of Obsidian Nalini Singh
Born of Silence Sherrilyn Kenyon
His Dark Materials Phillip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Author Websites and Profiles
AR DeClerck Website
AR DeClerck Amazon Profile

AR DeClerck’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m Donna Figueroa, a writer and working actor living in Los Angeles, CA.

I’ve just published my second novel, Fall Again: Lost Boy (Marc the Interim Years), the second book in a four-part contemporary romance series.

I’m originally from Cincinnati, Ohio and a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, MA. During my junior year of college I did my first professional acting job on a show produced at WGBH in Boston. Immediately after college, I was offered a contract at a theatre company in Chicago where I would stay for the next three years.

After three years in Chicago, I was making preparations to move to New York, when my life took a detour in the exact opposite direction-west instead of east. An opportunity arose in Los Angeles. Long story short, I fell in love with Southern California, decided LA was home and never returned to Chicago. In retrospect, I must have been insane, but I’ve never looked back.

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, my preferred format being the short story. I never imagined myself publishing anything.

Ten years ago I joined the Story Salon, the longest running story telling venue in Los Angeles where I am now a producer. There, I wrote and performed my own stories, in addition to developing several one person shows for myself. (http://www.storysalon.com/)

I continued to write short stories. My first published work, The Legend of Evie Everheart, a ghost story, appeared in the literary magazine, Hot Valley Writers (http://www.hotvalleywriters.com/).

To date, I’ve written five novels.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My current novel is Fall Again: Lost Boy-Marc the Interim Years.

For years I’d been trying to write a romantic story set against the backdrop of working actors. The acing profession is often misunderstood. My own parents once asked if I was paid to appear on television shows and commercials. I wanted to dispel many of these misconceptions, and began to write my story, which evolved into a four part series.

Fall Again is the story of two working actors, Marc and Lauren, who meet and fall in love- but at the wrong time in their lives. The story will follow their relationship and careers, as well as the careers of their closest friends, many who are also artists whose lives follow completely different paths.

Lost Boy focuses on my hero Marc’s personal life and career. The next novel California Girl, (which will be published in 2016), chronicles my heroine Lauren and her life and career.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not unusual is that I always write to music. What might be unusual is that I often listen to a specific block of selections that connect me to the section of the story I’m working on at the time. This might explain why my husband is behind a closed door when I’m writing. The repetitive music drives him crazy.

For example, today as I’ve been doing some rewrites on a section of the next installment, California Girl. I’ve been listening to The Dana Owen’s Album, (Queen Latifah) which features a great version of California Dreamin’. Listening to this song just gets me to the right place emotionally.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Years ago I read Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. I was impressed with the simplicity in his storytelling.

Not long ago I discovered a new author, Maria McKenzie. Her first novel, The Governors Sons is a historical romance and a period piece taking place in the 1930’s and 1960’s. Her writing is descriptive, dramatic and gripping. But I’ve just learned that she’s also versatile. Her current novel, From Cad to Cadaver is a contemporary romance, and hysterical!

What are you working on now?
There are still two more novels in the Fall Again series. They’re both written, but still need revisions and editing. California Girl: Lauren the Interim Years, and Reunion: A Romance Realized will be published in 2016.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Good question. At this point in time, promotion is like a Rubik’s Cube. That is, there are several solutions to the puzzle. And for now, this is a puzzle I’ve yet to solve.

As a new writer, I’m trying to create awareness. Forums like this one are excellent ways to achieve this.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing. And whatever you do, don’t compare your work and artistry to anyone else’s work.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
When writing, always be true to yourself and your characters. If you don’t allow your characters to maintain their integrity, they’ll keep you awake at night.

What are you reading now?
Maria McKenzie’s new novel, From Cad to Cadaver. It’s very funny.

What’s next for you as a writer?
There are still two more novels in the Fall Again series, California Girl and Reunion. After that I hope to complete a stand alone novel, A Private Family Matter. This is a story about a family funeral and a dark comedy. And while this is down the road, I can see spinning off two of the supporting characters from the Fall Again series into their own novel, or even a series. 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?
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

What can I say? I’m a hopeless romantic!

Author Websites and Profiles
Donna Figueroa Website
Donna Figueroa Amazon Profile

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

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
So far, I’ve written three books. Decadent Publishing have published two of them – both contemporary romance and definitely related. Her Dollmaker’s Desire is the first, and Her Undercover Christmas is the second. I have a further two to three I could write in that world. Three World’s Press has published my Women’s Fic/Chick Lit/Contemporary Romance genre straddler. It could appeal to fans of Outlander, although it’s not historical, or fans of the TV series Fringe, I suppose.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recently published book is Her Undercover Christmas – release just in time for the holiday season. 🙂 The original inspiration was Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling.

Our society has grown used to The Ugly Duckling as a metaphor for an awkward female teen blossoming into a beautiful woman but, in my opinion, the original is far more about fitting in, finding your tribe, somewhere to belong. The Ugly Duckling’s appearance is simply what marks him out as different – it is a visible sign to everyone else that he is different, somehow wrong. And, that brings me to another point… HIM. Hans Christian Andersen’s Ugly Duckling was male, not the female we all think of when we talk of ugly ducklings.

Essentially, the story is about the displaced signet (the confusion of the swan egg in the duck nest isn’t explained) finding himself a new family in the form of the duck and her ducklings. My hero makes himself a new family, in the form of a street gang, but—like The Ugly Duckling—all is not as it seems. Just as the duckling is driven out of his surrogate family, so is my hero when his differences start to come to light, and they both run away to the wider world.

All through the story, The Ugly Duckling is reminded he is ugly, as is my hero, although his reminders come from the one person he wishes didn’t find him ugly.

There are, of course, differences – Bastian isn’t struck by tongs in a kitchen, or pecked by hens, unless you count the heroine’s mother, and he isn’t hunted by dogs, but I hope I have managed to stay true to the message of the original story.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Child neglect? 😉 In all seriousness, my children are used to nudging me or repeatedly saying my name while I murmur ‘Just a minute’ as I scribble out that one final thought.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I wish the answer could be as simple as the question. I think all of the books I’ve read have, in some way, influences me. I love reading, I admire authors…I aspire to achieve what they have. I read, and always have read, books by authors no longer with us. What a feat to achieve that sort of immortality.

What are you working on now?
Too many things! Seriously. I have a folder full of files with ‘beginnings’ in it. I have a lot of beginnings. In my head, I have still more stories stewing. At least four that I can list up right now. I just need middles and ends, I think.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I wish I knew a best method. I ask a lot of people, but the answer is always the same – promotion is fickle, what works one week, one day, one hour isn’t guaranteed to work the next. I’m still such a new author with a very small catalogue of work, so I think my best promotion will be time, building contacts, building a reader base, and getting to know people.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t stop writing. 🙂 I recently write a light guest blog on How to Succeed as a Writer. In the end, it turns out that there is only one thing you can control. You can control not succeeding by not writing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Get the words on the page. You can edit words on a page, you can’t work with a blank one.

What are you reading now?
I think I have maybe three books on the go? I have a books on my Kobo app, and books on my Kindle app… and I’m only a few pages into any one of them. I’m restless at the moment. I’m unwilling to start something too long because December is coming, and December means Christmas themed books. I’ve already started scoping out books with Christmas in the title and magical-looking covers. I’ll read my Christmas themed books from the beginning of December until Christmas Eve.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To get past a beginning. 🙂 I might start the next in my Biker Beware series, or I might write a time travel romance currently bubbling in my head, or I might pick up one of my beginnings. I have a partial small town romance story, a partial modern witch romcom style one, and at least two women’s fiction ones waiting for attention.

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 think I’d have to say Lisa Kleypas’s The Wallflowers series.

Author Websites and Profiles
Gina Wynn Website
Gina Wynn Amazon Profile

Gina Wynn’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi, I’m Kristy K. James. It seems that as long as I can remember, I’ve been writing. As a child of eight or ten, I wrote plays for my siblings and cousins to perform for our families – and an aunt made sure everyone participated (whether they wanted to or not). Then I got into Barbies and and paper dolls and that fed my need for making up stories – until I got to old to play with them. At least openly. Yes, I was a closet Barbie and Ken lover for a couple of years.

And then… Lo and behold – there was a ninth grade creative writing class. I wrote my first book – and I’ve been writing them ever since.

How many books have I written? That’s a great question. Published, I think I’m around twenty-four now, with the last installment of the Casteloria series due in December (2015). However, if you count the mountains of handwritten stories in a box of spiral notebooks, I would have to guess that number to be closer to forty. I’ve already revamped one from a teen romance to a grownup one (A Hero For Holly), and hope to do the same with many of the other ones.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, A Cold Day in Paradise, will be released in time for Christmas 2015. What inspired it? My readers. Around 2010, I came up with an idea for a standalone romance – Laying Low in Paradise (2013). One book. That was all. Except fans of the story loved a couple of the other characters and kept asking me to write stories for them. Sixteen months later, A Cool Summer in Paradise was released. And now I’ve finished the third and final installment.

Laying Low in Paradise was inspired by a car accident. In 2008, a gentleman ran a red light and totaled my van. I wound up in physical, occupational, and vision therapy for about nine months with injuries to my back, hip, and right shoulder, along with a mild head injury, and damage to a nerve in my right eye. The situation looked bad enough that one doctor advised me to stop trying so hard and just start using a wheelchair and live my life the best I could.

At one point, I was terrified that I’d lost the ability to write. I couldn’t concentrate, I had a hard time putting sentences together because I’d think I wrote one thing and re-read it to find it wasn’t quite right. Like Jane walked Spot around the park could become something as silly as Jane walked Spot on the pumpkin.

And so I sat down one day, partway through my therapies, determined to see if I could still tell a story. There was no outline, no plan in mind, no goal to work toward. I just wanted to write a chapter. And I did. About a year and a half later, the outline and rest of the story followed.

And just so you know, except for the loss of the peripheral vision in the top of my right eye, I’m pretty much back to normal – and walking just fine – without the aid of a wheelchair. Ever.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I used to do all of my writing during the day but one residual issue from the accident, in addition to the peripheral vision thing, is that I’m still fairly easily distracted. I get around that by doing most of my writing in the middle of the night now. I also tend to listen to a Spotify playlist that is filled with nothing but Canon in D (Celtic harp) and Bella’s Lullaby (piano). The volume has to be low, but those two songs play for hours. For whatever reason, I can’t write to music with words.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
That’s a great question too – and one that would be hard for me to answer. From reading through grade school report cards, as early as first grade teachers were noting that I did very well in reading, understood what I’d read, and checked out a lot of library books. So maybe just books in general influenced me.

As I got older, I loved stories by authors like Debbie Macomber and Nicholas Sparks.

What are you working on now?
I’m editing one manuscript while trying to write the second book, Steven, in my Men From the Double M series.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m awful about promoting my books. Trying to do better, but still learning. I love the AwesomeGang because it’s easy and doesn’t give me a headache. 😉

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read. Read as much as you can. Read good books so you know what kind of talent it takes to succeed. And then read badly written books so you know what NOT to do.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Wow. The best advice? I’m assuming you mean as far as reading? Ignore the rules and write the story that’s in your head.

What are you reading now?
I’m bopping back and forth between Cowboy Dad (Cathy McDavid) and A Christmas Carol (Dickens).

What’s next for you as a writer?
I will be starting a Christmas romance series in 2016 with a sexy, kind of vagabond pastor, continuing with the Double M series, and hopefully finishing the prequel for Enza.

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?
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. It’s a story set in the late 1950s about the aftermath of a worldwide nuclear war. Mrs. Mike, set in the early 1900s. It’s based on the true story of a girl who married a Canadian mountie and spends much of her life in the Canadian wilderness. And probably a couple of Harlequin Christmas editions with four stories in each. Yes, that’s probably cheating because it would be eight stories in two – but they’re all contained between the covers of two books. 😀

Author Websites and Profiles
Kristy K. James Website
Kristy K. James Amazon Profile

Kristy K. James’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity to connect with readers…one of my favorite things to do. I’ve published nineteen novels, beginning with Harlequin Superromance (15 books) and now have four books on Amazon. I began writing romance novels, but since everything I wrote seemed to include mystery and suspense, I found myself writing romantic suspense. My new books are more mainstream with heavier suspense, but still include the deep character development and emotional connections that characterized my earlier novels. As my bio suggests, I love to travel and use that as an opportunity to do research and photography, my second love after writing. There’s nothing more fun and rewarding than traveling to distant places, meeting new people and learning that no matter how far apart we all are, or how different our cultures…we are all very much the same.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, DETROIT RULES, the first book in my new Street Law series, was inspired by the opportunity to spend a great deal of time in Detroit and learn about the city from native Detroiters, who have a far different perspective than what we see in the news. I became fascinated with the history and how things deteriorated…and now, how things are changing. Instead of seeing bleak devastation and a city crumbling in around itself, I see a city on the move…and proud people working against all odds to make their lives and their once magnificent city whole again. And while I do depict the city realistically, I hope I’ve captured the heart of the city…the amazing people…in DETROIT RULES.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No, nothing unusual. I aim to have a schedule, but because of the creative nature of writing…and life in general, it’s sometimes hard to do. I begin writing…and then need to research something, and then, whoa… all of a sudden I’ve been researching for hours instead of writing. Research is one of the most fascinating parts of writing for me.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Far too many to list, but early on I read all the classics and my all-time favorite book is TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I’d never read a romance until one day (years ago) while moving, I was stuck in an empty apartment waiting for furniture to arrive and picked up an early Rosemary Rogers book. I was fascinated with the amount of history in the historical romance novel (not to mention the sex) and subsequently read all of her books. I can’t say those books influenced my actual writing, but it did encourage me to step outside my usual literary tastes in reading. Prior to that, my early writing (as a young adult) was totally random. I wrote a Star Trek like story…sort of a Robin Hood in space, a time travel that had two consecutive stories, one in the past and one in the present…and others that resembled Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone stories. It’s been an interesting writing evolution from all over-the-place to settling on romantic mystery, suspense and intrigue…the types of stories I love to read and write.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on DETROIT HUSTLE, the second book in the Street Law series, and also THE BETRAYED, the 4th book in my LAPD Special Investigations romantic suspense series.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m on Facebook every day and also Twitter. For me, Twitter is one of the best venues to get word out, but really a combination of social media outlets works best.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
The same old, same old…read and read some more, write and write some more, but just as important, learn your craft and never stop.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best writing advice….in addition to the above…never give up!

As for advice in general, I just posted this on my Facebook page the other day and, for me, it’s the best advice ever!!

“None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an after thought. Eat the delicious food. Walk in the sunshine. Jump in the ocean. Say the truth that you’re carrying in your heart like hidden treasure. Be silly. Be kind. Be weird. There’s no time for anything else.”

What are you reading now?
I tend to read more than one book at a time. Right now I’m reading STAY DEAD by Anne Frasier, and also a James Scott Bell novel. But I read all over the place…from historical novels to futuristic. Marcus Sakey’s BRILLIANCE was a great read.

What’s next for you as a writer?
More books, of course. I’m going to keep writing the Street Law series, and I’m also trying something new…a young adult novel that I’m writing with a young adult. 😉 I think it’s going to be awesome and I’m having a great time writing it. It should be out early in 2016.

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?
Too hard to choose. They would have to be books I could read over and over… something very, very long…and inspiring…and funny…and emotional…and deep.

Author Websites and Profiles
Linda Style Website
Linda Style Amazon Profile

Linda Style’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I do a little bit of this and that, but I’m always writing in between this and that. In my spare time, I enjoy DIY projects and crafting, and spending time with family and friends, playing board games and watching movies. I’m a a bibliophile, cinephile, and pluviophile (how’s that for a vocabulary lesson!), and I’m fascinated with everything from history to science to theology. I’ve been a Michigan transplant in the great state of Texas for the past several years, but now I live it up in Oklahoma City, where I can’t choose between saying “you guys” and “y’all.”

I love Jesus and wants to focus my writing on Him.

I am the author of THE FIELD, an allegorical fantasy about three women lured into a forbidden field by a charming prospector and the promise of buried treasure.

I am in progress on two works of contemporary women’s fiction, A YEAR WITH THE BAPTISTS, a story about a woman navigating faith and relationships in post-grad life, and THE SISTERS WOODS, a story of how death changes a family. I have a fantasy series brewing on the back burner. I am also the author of numerous short stories, flash fiction, essays, and when the mood hits, the occasional poem on my blog at lydiathomasauthor.wordpress.com.

I am currently represented by Vox Dei Publishing, an imprint of Booktrope.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I’m so unimaginative when it comes to book titles! THE FIELD is about a field. A YEAR WITH THE BAPTISTS is about a character who spends a year with the Baptists. THE SISTERS WOODS is about four sisters with the last name Woods.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can’t focus without things going on around me, be it conversation at a coffee shop, or a television show playing in the background at home.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Charles Dickens and George MacDonald, because they are both authors who really understand society and people.

What are you working on now?
My year-end project is getting A YEAR WITH THE BAPTISTS ready for publication. It follows a recent college graduate as she navigates faith and relationships.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
You know, I love to read, and so I review and analyze books on my blog. It has really helped me connect with readers, and even other writers (who are often readers themselves).

Do you have any advice for new authors?
It seems like there are an awful lot of people offering step-by-step formulas for success, so I’d say not to worry about any of that. Be yourself – online and offline. Write about what gets you excited. Share things that interest you. It will all fall into place when you do.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Work hard, and be patient. (Kind of self-explanatory).

What are you reading now?
A few things: for pleasure, I’m reading Melanie Surani’s THE SILENT TREATMENT; to stretch my brain, I’m reading CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Fyodor Dostoevsky; and for spiritual development, I’m reading THE CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE by Richard Foster.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing, of course.

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 guess a solar-powered Kindle doesn’t count, huh? The Bible, There and Back by George MacDonald, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and an empty journal.

Author Websites and Profiles
Lydia Thomas Website
Lydia Thomas Amazon Profile

Lydia Thomas’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Born in 1965, I grew up on a working cattle ranch in the desert thirty miles from Wickenburg, Arizona, which at that time was exactly the middle of nowhere. Work, cactus and heat were plentiful, forms of recreation were not. The TV got two channels when it wanted to, and only in the evening after someone hand cranked the balky diesel generator to life. All of which meant that my primary form of escape was reading.

At 18 I escaped to Tucson where I attended the University of Arizona. A number of fruitless attempts at productive majors followed, none of which stuck. Discovering I liked writing, I tried journalism two separate times, but had to drop it when I realized that I had no intention of conducting interviews with actual people but preferred simply making them up.

After graduating with a degree in Creative Writing in 1989, I backpacked Europe with a friend and caught the travel bug. With no meaningful job prospects, I hitchhiked around the U.S. for a while then went back to school to learn to be a high school English teacher. I got a teaching job right out of school in the middle of the year. The job lasted exactly one semester, or until I received my summer pay and realized I actually had money to continue backpacking.

The next stop was Australia, where I hoped to spend six months, working wherever I could, then a few months in New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands. However, my plans changed irrevocably when I met a lovely Swiss woman, Claudia, in Alice Springs. Undoubtedly swept away by my lack of a job or real future, she agreed to allow me to follow her back to Switzerland where, a few months later, she gave up her job to continue traveling with me. Over the next couple years we backpacked the U.S., Eastern Europe and Australia/New Zealand, before marrying and settling in the mountains of Colorado, in a small town called Salida.

In Colorado we starved and froze, started our own electronics business, and had a couple of sons, Dylan and Daniel. In 2005 we shut the business down and moved back to Tucson.

Through all this I have continued to write. My first six books, which included a fantasy trilogy, a science thriller and a horror novel, admittedly weren’t all that good, but I learned a lot from writing them (many years ago I read some advice Stephen King gave to young writers, something to the effect that you’ll write a million words of crap before anything really good comes out and, in my case at least, it was true).

Anyway, somewhere in the mid-2000s it all finally started to click. My characters and scenes just started to come alive. Since then I have written an epic fantasy series, The Devastation Wars, and am just wrapping up the fifth and final book. I’ve written the action thriller Watching the End of the World, and I’m writing a book about growing up on a cattle ranch.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Watching the End of the World is the name of my latest book (although I have a new one, book five in my fantasy series, which will come out very soon).

Spoiler Alert!

This story was born somewhere around 2011. My son, Dylan, was watching a reality show that was set in a warehouse in LA. The premise of the show was that civilization had collapsed and the participants had to find ways to filter water, collect food and so on. It was actually rather interesting watching the participants figure out how to use what was available to meet their needs. But it turned silly when they were “raided” by motorcycle-riding hooligans and had to “fight” them off. Clearly everyone knew it was fake so there was no real dramatic tension. At one point I turned to Dylan and said, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if those people actually thought the world had ended?”

That sparked a discussion as to whether such a feat could be pulled off. Since my sons and I have always enjoyed debating post-apocalyptic scenarios, this became a favorite topic over the next couple years. (Hint: Don’t watch a zombie movie with us. We spend half the time on pause talking about what the characters should have done in every situation.)

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Way too many to do real justice. Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King, Steven Ericksen, Matt Stover, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Louis Lamour, Stephen Donaldson, JRR Tolkien.

What are you working on now?
I am finishing up my fantasy series, The Devastation Wars, and writing a book about growing up on a ranch, which will be largely humorous.

Author Websites and Profiles
Eric T Knight Website
Eric T Knight Amazon Profile

Eric T Knight’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been an author for over thirty years, which is almost as long as I’ve been living in my small log house in the evergreen forests in Oregon. I currently have 22 romance novels and 3 non-fiction books available on Amazon. All of my books, including their covers and descriptions, are posted on my website. I’m a full-time writer, and I love the quietness that comes with living in the woods. My laptop sits on a coffee table in the living room so I can look out the window and see squirrels, chipmunks, and birds at the feeders just outside, so I have little desire to go to the city, which is about 35 miles away.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is entitled, Finding Justice, which is Book 12 in my Dancing Moon Ranch series. It’s also the final book in the series. Being part of a series, my hero and heroine had already been introduced to readers in earlier books, so the inspiration for the story came out of the series. However, the inspiration for the first book in the series was based on an actual lawsuit over a botched procedure at a fertility clinic, when two women got sperm from the wrong men. That book is entitled, Righteous Lies. My heroine’s sister, who popped up toward the end of Righteous Lies, prompted me to write the second book in the series, which is entitled, Pandora’s Box. That story brought in the twin brother of my hero in Righteous Lies, and things just kept going from there. The 13-book series ended up spanning thirty years and two generations. It’s been great writing the series because I always wanted to live on a working guest/cattle ranch and be surrounded by cowboys and now it’s like I am, and the couples in the first three books, and all of their sons and one daughter, are my family. My series is getting great reviews, and a couple of reviewers equated the series to the “Dallas” TV series without all the sex. There is some sex, but it’s PG-13.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I guess my unusual habit is that I have to discipline myself to stop writing and do other things. like get up and exercise. I keep a timer next to my laptop to remind me to do that, once an hour, because I can get so wrapped up in the story I’m writing that an entire day can slip by unnoticed. So every hour I either walk on my walker, kick Maggie’s ball so she can retrieve it for me to kick a hundred times more, or walk in the woods. But even when the time dings, more often than not I turn it off for a couple of minutes, and an hour later, realize I forgot to get up and exercise.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
A few authors who have influenced me are Kay Nolte Smith and her wonderful historical saga, A Tale of the Wind, which is my all-time favorite novel. Legacy, by Susan Kay, which is a novel about Queen Elizabeth, I is another favorite. Sadly, I spend very little time reading fiction because what little time I have when not writing is spent reading research material for my current or next book.

What are you working on now?
The book I’m working on is entitled, River Hawk, and it’s Book 1 in my CAJUN COWBOY SERIES. The series is a contemporary western series set in the prairie and marsh cattle country of SW Louisiana, not far from where many of my Cajun relatives live.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My website is my best promoter. On it I post the covers and descriptions of all of my books, divided by “tabs” for my single-title contemporaries and my historical romances, but I feature the books in my Dancing Moon Ranch on the primary page. At the end of every one of my books I include three chapters of another book (or the next book in the series), along with links to that book, and to my website. Most of my books are on Amazon KDP Select, so subscribers can read them that way.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice to new authors is to read books outside of their genre (assuming they have a solid knowledge of what’s expected in their genre). That way they don’t inadvertently start re-writing other author’s stories, or fall into the cliché trap. I read books by authors I admire, outside of my genre, and learn from those. But my main advice is to just keep writing. There is more to learn from that than spending time on blogs talking to other struggling writers. It took me about ten books before it all started coming together. My last advice, for indie authors, is to never stop reviewing and revising your books. I reread all of my books every 6 months and I always find things to change. As time goes by it’s less and less, but there are still ways to make every story better.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I ever heard was from a senior editor from Harlequin who liked my writing but knew I didn’t have a clue about weaving in story threads. She actually worked with me, one-on-one, until I got it right, then bought the manuscript, which was entitled, Sweet Promised Land (now on Amazon as Broken Promises). Editors today will not do that. I just got lucky. I later wrote an article for Romance Writer’s Review on “Weaving in Story Threads” which is posted on my website, along with other “How-To” articles on writing. The second best advice I received was to take the plunge and become an indie author. I had already published with Harlequin and Avon, which meant jumping through all the query and submission hoops, then waiting FOREVER to hear back from editors. It was the pits! So, on May 5, 2011, I got so disgusted that I hadn’t heard back from editors who had requested manuscripts that I uploaded 7 books to Amazon, and I’ve never looked back. I love having complete control.

What are you reading now?
Right now I’m reading all non-fiction research material. Maybe someday I’ll sit back and read some of the books I’ve downloaded to my Kindle, but it won’t happen until I’ve finished writing the last book in my CAJUN COWBOYS series.

What’s next for you as a writer?
After I complete my CAJUN COWBOYS series, which will be finished in 2017, I’ll probably come up with another series. I love writing them, especially with books that move forward in time so readers can really get to know the characters, who are woven throughout the series, much like a TV series. My DANCING MOON RANCH series spanned 30 years and two generations, and my CAJUN COWBOYS series will span around 15 years so the youngest brother in the series can grow up and find his lady love

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 I was going to be spending time on a desert island, the book I’d grab first would be A Tale of the Wind because it’s long, involved, spans a lifetime, and I learn something new about writing every time I read it. The second book would be my memoir, which is entitled (on Amazon) Around the Belt. It has over 1000 photos of my family and all aspects of my life while growing up in New Orleans in the 1940s and 50s, including some of the many colorful people who were either directly, or indirectly, a part of my life. The 3rd and 4th books would be books on screenwriting, one by Syd Field, and the other by Laura Schellhardt (Screenwriting for Dummies), so when I’m finally rescued I’d be able to write the scripts for my Dancing Moon Ranch series in hopes that the series would be bought for TV.

Author Websites and Profiles
Patricia Watters Website
Patricia Watters Amazon Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Félix Augusto Reyes Gutiérrez was born in Ibagué in the department of Tolima; he has the professional degree of Systems Engineer, he is a Technological Specialist in E-Commerce; Magister in Commercial and Marketing Manager, he is a Technologist in Computer Systems, Technologist in Data Networks and Professional Systems Technician.

Nowadays Reyes Gutiérrez is an instructor of Teleinformática of The National Learning Service, “SENA”, in the “Industry and Construction Center”, Tolima regional. He has also worked as a university professor adding so more than 15 years of experience in the area of education and professional formations. Furthermore, he is a member of the “Research, Development and Innovation, of The SENA”.
Among the achievements of the author is also highlighted, the International ICDL START Syllabus Certification Version 5.0 of The International Computer Driving License (ICDL) and an International Certification by the “Internet & Computing Core Certification” (IC3).
His professional profile is complemented with studies of courses in Digital Entrepreneurship, Personal Excellence, Environmental Management and Enterprise Social Responsibility, Innovation Management TIC, Management of Marketing and Customer Service, Virtual Master, Human Resources Management, Digital Content, International Commerce Management, Management in Communication and Information Technology (TIC ́s), as well as others.
Reyes Gutiérrez is an active partaker of seminars, workshops, congresses and all kinds of scientific technological release. From inside the events he has attended the Iberoamerican Congress of Social Media is highlighted (look at http://goo.gl/5eiIqV).
Passionate related with all the Digital Marketing in general. Share the information related with the topic in his Blog: http://felix-reyes.com.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Cyber Threats in the WEB 3.0: A Guide to learn to identify and prevent the risks you and your family, are exposed to when navigating the Internet.

My children

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No…

What authors, or books have influenced you?
og Mandino,
Timothy ferriss,
Tommy Newberry,
Stephen R. Covey,
Wallace D Wattles,
Napoleón Hill,
Wayne Dyer,
Tim

What are you working on now?
Instructor of Teleinformática of The National Learning Service, “SENA”, in the “Industry and Construction Center”, Tolima regional.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
https://awesomegang.com/
😉

and, word of mouth

Do you have any advice for new authors?
perseverance

and deaf ears

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You’re never going to please all the World

What are you reading now?
books on linkedIn

What’s next for you as a writer?
Spread the message of safe Internet

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
100 years of Solitude
and how to escape an island

😉

Author Websites and Profiles
Félix A. Reyes G. Website
Félix A. Reyes G. Amazon Profile

Félix A. Reyes G.’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m Rebecca Belliston, mother of five. I write while my kids are in school to keep my sanity. I’ve published four novels (two Christian romantic suspense novels and two dystopian novels), and I have several more in the works.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
LIBERTY is book 2 in my #CitizensofLoganPond trilogy. This series is set a few years in the future after the financial collapse of America. I wanted to explore the idea of how a small neighborhood might pull together in hard times, how regular people and families would survive without money, technology, grocery stores, or even chocolate. It’s been my favorite project to work on so far.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write whenever I have a minute or two to write. Sometimes that’s late at night, sometimes that’s during my daughter’s gymnastics or my son’s ortho appointments. With five kids, I have to grab writing time whenever I can get it.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m a huge Jane Austen fan. Her books are brilliantly clever, funny, and swoon-worthy. My father, Gerald N. Lund, also has had a huge influence on me. He’s written over thirty books.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on the last book in my trilogy which will be called THE PURSUIT. (The first two novels are called LIFE, and LIBERTY.)

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I love book reviewers. They’re so passionate about books, and they’re always thrilled to share what they’re reading.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read. Write. Repeat.

It’s that easy and that hard.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Great books aren’t written. They’re rewritten.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading “Cress” by Marissa Meyer. Wonderful series!

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have several projects I’m itching to finish including a medieval romance.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Pride and Prejudice, the scriptures, and probably a few of my own. 🙂

Author Websites and Profiles
Rebecca Belliston Website
Rebecca Belliston Amazon Profile

Rebecca Belliston’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 former software engineer turned science fiction novelist. I’ve written and published the first two books of my eHuman Trilogy; eHuman Dawn (an International Book Award Finalist) and eHuman Deception, released this past summer and garnering great reviews. I hope to publish the final book sometime in 2016, however I’m also in the middle of writing my first historical fantasy, so we’ll see. In my spare time I teach ballroom dance to high schoolers, spin and knit as well as color. I’m addicted to Johanna Basford’s coloring books. And of course I read a lot, but mostly scifi and fantasy. I’m also a crossfit fan, pull ups are the best!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is eHuman Deception. The entire eHuman Trilogy was inspired by a dream I had five years ago in which I was living in a male android body and the power to my city had been shutdown. I spent the rest of the dream trying to save us and when I woke up I knew I had a novel.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
As a mother of two, I write every day at scheduled times. I can’t just sit down when the muse appears and write, so I’ve developed the habit of creating playlists for each of my novels. When the time comes to work, I cue the music and find myself entering the world of the story.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Too many to mention. Ursula LeGuin, Madeline L’Engle and Brandon Sanderson are often open on my Kindle.

What are you working on now?
A historical romance/history about the Rebel Pharaoh of Egypt. A switch from Science Fiction. Seems like I need to go back in time before I can jump forward again.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Honestly, I’m still working on this. Is it Twitter? Sometimes. Facebook? Sure. Goodreads? Definitely. My blog has been helpful as well…one blog went viral on Reddit this past June. In the end, I think we just need to spend time reaching out in as many ways as possible without taking too much time from writing.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write. Everyday. Even if you don’t feel like it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write. Everyday. Even if you don’t feel like it.

What are you reading now?
Just finished Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy. Next up: Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Once I finish up the two novels I’m working on, I hope to adapt eHuman Dawn into a screenplay.

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 Fountainhead, The Catcher in the Rye, The Alchemist and perhaps a journal.

Author Websites and Profiles
Nicole Anderson Website
Nicole Anderson Amazon Profile

Nicole Anderson’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account