Awesome Author Interviews

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Clementine’s Shadow is my first published novel — though I have a couple others in process. I was an English major in high school and always loved mysteries — so it was natural for me to gravitate toward writing one. After working as a civil servant for many years, I now live in the beach community of Ventura with my husband and our cats. When I’m not writing or working on art projects (I’m currently illustrating a children’s book for an author), you can find me digging up the lawn as I transform our yard into a drought-tolerant paradise — one foot at a time!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
When I started writing Clementine’s Shadow, I wanted to tell a story from multiple points of view, with a tight timeline where all the characters end up in the same place trying to rescue a little girl. To that end, the plot of Clementine’s Shadow takes places over the course of one day and interweaves the lives of four people, with each one finding a way to vanquish past failures as they search for the girl. I set the story in a harsh, unforgiving landscape that would mirror some of the characters’ unwillingness to forgive themselves.

As a native Californian, I knew a big part of the state’s history was linked to the discovery of gold and silver and the idea of setting the story near an abandoned mine offered a wealth of possibilities. For Clementine’s Shadow, I took elements of Acton, CA, the Antelope Valley and the Red Rover Mine and melded them with other mines in the region to create my fictional town and county. I didn’t want to use a real county; the idea of insulting the hard-working sheriff departments that patrol these wide expanses didn’t sit right with me. Besides, with a fictional town, you can have a lot more creative fun.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really, but dark chocolate is an important part of my creative process. I do like to ‘mix things up’ by writing by hand as well as on the computer.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve always read across genres – maybe even more so as a child. I read all the Nancy Drew mysteries, but my favorite book in elementary school was Johnny Tremain. That book sparked my interest in history; I think successful books make you want to read more about the subject or period in which they’re set. I was also a huge Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott fan, but my early love of mysteries did influence me. My favorite authors today include mystery writers C.J. Box, Jan Burke, Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Tana French, Sue Grafton and Jo Nesbo.

What are you working on now?
I’m currently doing a final polish on a second thriller, Erasing Ramona, as well as a YA mystery, Punishment Summer. I’m also 11,000 words into a new project — another thriller — and am having fun with the research.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My book — or links to it — can be found on any of the following websites:

http://peggyrothschild.com

www.amazon.com/clementines-shadow-ebook/dp/B00C9IED50/ref=sr_1-1?=books&ie=UTF8qid=1365558888&sr+1-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/clementines-shadow-peggy-rothschild/1115238635?ean=9780615799148

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7079283.Peggy_Rothschild

http://www.facebook.com/peggyrothschildauthor

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Whoever said “Writing is 90% rewriting” had it right. I think the best thing an author can do is stay open to criticism but not relinquish your voice.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I heard a presenter at a writers conference say something along the lines of: Telling your friends you’re writing a book isn’t writing. Talking about writing isn’t writing. Only putting your butt in a chair and writing IS writing.

What are you reading now?
I just finished reading Brad Parks’ The Good Cop and have started Craig Johnson’s A Serpent’s Tooth.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m planning a research trip to northern California for the manuscript I’ve just started and that — along with lots and lots of writing and rewriting — will keep me busy for awhile.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Oh my, that’s tough. I’d definitely need to bring ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’ by David Guterson as that’s a book I’ve enjoyed reading time and again. The others would also be re-readers — books where I love the language or the characters or the plot — or all three:

The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

Author Websites and Profiles
Peggy Rothschild Website
Peggy Rothschild Amazon Profile

Peggy Rothschild’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live as a recluse with my wife and three children somewhere in the hills of Eastern Kansas. When I’m not helping with homework, or running errands, or paying bills, or working, or spending time with my family, or sleeping, or eating, or using the bathroom, I like to write.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The book is called Holliday’s Gold and it’s a modern re-telling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

I’d read the classic to my kids a few years back and thought it might be a fun exercise to write my own version. So I sat down and I wrote:

Once upon a time there lived three bears.These were no ordinary bears, mind you. They didn’t live in caves, they didn’t stand about by great North American rivers, idly swiping salmon from the churning waters as the poor fish struggled upstream in hopes of perpetuating their species, and they most certainly did not spend the greater part of their day trying to steal honey from bees. No, these bears were different.

And from there I just didn’t stop.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really.

At least, I don’t think that I do.

I write only on the weekdays an hour before I have to leave for work.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Douglas Adams and Stephen King.

What are you working on now?
My Super Midlife Crisis.

It’s about a guy in his mid to late 30’s, he’s married with kids, and he suddenly gets super powers. He then has to try and juggle working two jobs, spending time with his family, saving the known world, and trying to figure out just where his priorities truly are.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Good question. I’m still new to all of this so the promotion aspect is still something I’m learning … so I’ll say Awesome Gang 🙂

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes.

Don’t.

But seriously. Find people who can help. If you can’t afford an editor, find people who are willing to read your stuff and find all the errors.

Be patient. This stuff doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes a long time to write a book, then revise it, then edit and all that.

Other than that, just write.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write. Just write and don’t stop.

What are you reading now?
The Morningstar Trilogy by Z.A. Recht

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m just going to keep writing. I have about ten or so projects I’m working on, but I’d like to try and stick with My Super Midlife Crisis and get that out there by this time next year.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

The Stand by Stephen King

The Long, Dark Tea-time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

Author Websites and Profiles
Steeven R. Orr Website
Steeven R. Orr Author Profile on Smashwords

Steeven R. Orr’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written 4 books – 2 in the Jo Epstein mystery series and 2 ‘stand-alone’ works of literary crime fiction.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
So many elements in my life combined to inspire me to write RUSSIAN RECKNING!

My older brother is a private investigator and as a teenager, I pestered him to take me out on surveillances. When he refused, I stayed home and wrote poetry. Eventually, Jo Epstein’s hyphenated identity as performance poet/private detective emerged and she ‘starred’ in her first mystery, ASK THE DEAD.

When my mother moved to Brighton Beach – a Russian enclave in New York City—I visited her often and played with the idea of writing a book in which the past of a Russian émigré’s catches up to him. I wrote the beginning of RUSSIAN RECKONING, which set in New York City, and then traveled to Russia to find settings for the climactic second half. I was the first American to visit Vladimir Central prison and was taken to dinner by a Commander in the Moscow Criminal Police, who blessed my plot.

Many intriguing places in and near Moscow became settings for scenes in RUSSIAN RECKONING. And along the way I discovered that my last name – shortened to Yarrow on Ellis Island so many years ago – was actually Yaroshevsky – a common name in Belarus. Perhaps this was the real reason I wrote RUSSIAN RECKONING –I solved my own mystery by writing a novel of suspense set in my ancestral homeland.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Since my teen years in New York I have loved writing on buses and trains. This love of writing on moving vehicles does not, however, extend to cars and planes.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
As a mystery writer I am influenced by Ruth Rendell, Georges Simenon, Elroy Leonard and Martin Smith Cruz, just to name a few. It is wonderful to be part of a continuum – no matter how great or small a part one plays – and for me that is the best part of being an author.

What are you working on now?
I am currently finishing a romantic thriller set in India and Vancouver. My co-author, Arindam Roy, lives in Allahabad.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My blog is where I enjoy meeting readers and writing about my travels in search of interesting stories to tell.

It is called Travels with the Muse Please stop by!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I would say the most important thing is to develop a body of work and postpone publishing until you feel you have mastered your craft.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
As soon as you finish a book, start another one!

What are you reading now?
Thunder Demons by Dipika Mukherjee and Shooting to Kill by Susan Schreyer.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m adapting one of my books for the screen. Can’t say more right now but perhaps Bollywood will be involved.

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?
Collected Plays of Shakespeare, An Open Heart by The Dalai Lama, and a book on how to survive on a desert island!

Author Websites and Profiles
Joyce Yarrow Website
Joyce Yarrow Amazon Profile

Joyce Yarrow’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a boat bum (lived on retired WWII warship for ten years), editor, freelance writer, poet, musician and traveler. I prefer living on boats, islands and remote (tropical) places and have worked and lived in the Caribbean, Hong Kong and SE Asia. I have written both humor and mysteries that take place in the world I know, including three novels and several short stories. My perspectives are a bit off the norm as I haven’t owned a television since the 1980s.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recent book is THE INVENTION OF CLAY MCKENZIE, which I wrote with J. Reid Beckett. We were exploring the changing landscape of publishing and this story is about a particular tack one ambitious young New York editor takes.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write full time and prefer to writing at my standing desk so I don’t get too out of shape.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love reading and have adored the books of a range of writers from Hemingway to Milan Kundera, Isabelle Allende, Mark Helprin and Elmore Leonard.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a second book feature Martin Billings, the sea captain protagonist of my Venezuelan-based mystery novel UNDER LOW SKIES.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have no idea. I have spent my life focused on writing and music and never got a real handle on promotion. My writing is not mainstream (nor am I) and when I try what works for others it fails, so I simply relish anything that helps get new readers. That doesn’t mean I don’t promote, but it means that any difference between my best and worth methods is unnoticeable.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write books you would want to read. Don’t chase trends (it is maddening and boring).

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Buy low, sell high. But I’ve never figured out how to follow it. Beyond that, the idea of evaluating if doing something, anything, is worth more to me than writing. Would My Time Be Better Spent Writing? (WMTBBSW) is, I think, the current phrase.

What are you reading now?
Colin Cotterill’s series about Dr. Siri the Laotian corner. After living in Cambodia for two years, I find his descriptions of that part of Asia both brilliant and spot on.

What’s next for you as a writer?
More mysteries. I’ve been reading a lot of them recently and it rekindled my interest in the form–both short stories and novel length. Good mysteries are also good literature and I aim to continuously raise the bar for my writing.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Three I hadn’t read yet. Maybe IN SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW, a recent one by Mark Helprin, something by Allende or even Amy Tam. It depends on what was handy and looked good. Preferably thick books.

Author Websites and Profiles
Ed Teja Website
Ed Teja Amazon Profile
Ed Teja Author Profile on Smashwords

Ed Teja’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Award-winning author Debbie Roppolo grew up in the Blackland Prairie region of Texas, where miles of grassland and her horse were her best friends. Yep, that’s right–a modern day version of Laura Ingalls.

She is the author of Amelia Frump and her Peanut Butter Loving Imagination, and Amelia Frump and her Peanut Butter Loving Imagination is Cooking Up a Peanut Butter Storm, winner of a Purple Dragonfly Book Award (2013) Both books are published by DWB Children’s Line.

Roppolo’s stories have been published in newspapers, magazines, and in several of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

Cooking is her second passion, and she is an award-winning baker, and a field editor for Taste of Home magazine.

Married for over twenty years, she now resides in the Texas Hill Country with her husband John, and two children, Jonathan and Joseph.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The title of my last book was Amelia Frump and her Peanut Butter Loving, Overactive Imagination is Cooking Up a Peanut Butter Storm. That’s a mouthful, isn’t it. This book is an cookbook/activity book, and is targeted towards children from 6 to 12 years of age, and their families.

As a child, I had a wonderful time being in the kitchen with my grandmothers and other members of the family. During those moments, not only were we making baked goods and entrees, we were creating something more precious–memories. I created this cookbook because I wanted kids to have that same opportunity with their families.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My house has to be completely clean before I begin to write. I’m not quite sure why, but perhaps it’s the smell of freshness, or maybe I can relax–housework is done for the day.

I also like to turn on the Scentsy (apple pie scent is my favorite), and Not listen to instrumental music. For me, all this creates the perfect writing environment.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve always been a big fan of Beverly Cleary, especially her “Ramona” series. Mrs. Cleary’s characters were ones that I could empathize with when I was a child. They encountered the same problem I did in school, and to me, that made the stories more believable. When writing my books, I too try to create characters that are adventurous, but who are aren’t perfect, and have problems my readers can identify with.

What are you working on now?
I am writing and illustrating the third book in the Amelia Frump series, Amelia and the Billion-Cajillion Dollar Secret.

In this book Amelia Frump is best friends with Julie, a classmate she’s known since kindergarten, and Amelia believes nothing will end that friendship. Nothing, until a new girl moves into the neighborhood.

Meagan Wells is a sweet, fun-loving girl (Amelia’s age) who’s moved far away from her old friends and school. Julie and Meagan form an instant friendship, and Amelia begins to feel left out, and as exciting as a brown paper bag.

There’s a secret that Amelia’s teacher, Mr. Perez, has for the class, and Amelia is dismayed when she’s partnered with Meagan.

Amelia turns to her imagination for help, but something goes horribly wrong, and she struggles to correct everything before it’s too late.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I love using Twitter, and I promote through blog posts, and my Facebook fan page.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Ever author receives rejection letters during their career (even Dr. Seuss). The key is to never give up, and believe in yourself. The only true failure you’ll experience is if you stop trying.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Actually, I have two bits of advice that I try and live by.

The first was from my father. Before his death (when I was 15) Daddy was my cheerleader, appearing at every play performance, band concert, and sporting event I was in. He empowered me by always saying that I could accomplish and be almost anything I wanted, “just as long as I put my mind to it.’

The second was from my husband’s cousin. During a conversation about my embarking on a writing career, I gave many reasons why I shouldn’t.

My cousin asked if I was afraid of failure. I said I was. He pointed out that we fail at one thing every day of our lives, and the real failure is never having tried at all.

So, these are the two pieces of advice that fuel me. The thing that pushes me over the top when I’m exhausted mentally, physically , emotionally, and assists me in getting a foothold in my goals.

What are you reading now?
I’m an acquisitions editor at DWB Publishing, so…manuscripts during business hours, and during my personal time, A Marriage Made in Heaven… or Too Tired for an Affair by Erma Bombeck.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m working on my own collection of humorous parenting stories (Erma Bombeck-type), and I’ve considered writing another cookbook.

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 tough. There’s so many books I’ve enjoyed during my lifetime.

But…

1. The Grass is Always Greener over the Septic Tank by Erma Bombeck

2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

3. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Tough Times, Tough People

Author Websites and Profiles
Debbie Roppolo Website
Debbie Roppolo Amazon Profile

Debbie Roppolo’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My driving passions are travel, my love of music and film, and writing. Each plays an integral part in who I am. My wife is my greatest inspiration to keep writing, my travel partner and a movie buddy.

To date I have completed five books that are available on Amazon Kindle. I have written a couple others that probably won’t be published.

Works in progress include two more Cole Sage Mysteries, a young adult book, a western and a compilation of my short stories. This summer I will be working on a travel book on Ecuador. Other than that I really don’t have a whole lot of writing projects going right now. LOL

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
COLE DUST is the latest book in the Cole Sage Mystery Series. COLE DUST is actually a book within a book. Cole Sage inherits a house in Oklahoma, where he finds a steamer trunk full of old journals. Those journals take us from the early 1900s to the late 1950s, and exposes a dark family mystery. The inspiration for COLE DUST came from growing up listening to my Grandmother and her brother tell stories of the Dust Bowl and the effect it had on their lives. It is a fictional tribute to my family’s oral history.

THREE NAILS a novella, was released shortly after COLE DUST and seems to be picking up steam. It was inspired by the death of a friend’s son. There was a period of about six month that a lot of tragedy happened around me. It seemed like a good way to deal with it was to tell a story that the character’s life was affected by similar loss. The reviews have been very rewarding.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I think that my influences breakdown in to three categories. Literary influences are definitely are Charles Dickens, Robertson Davies, and John Jakes all of which are incredible story tellers. My favorite mystery writers are Author Conan Doyle, Stewart M. Kaminsky and Peter Lovesey, they are the text book I use on how write a mystery. The use of language comes from Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Groucho Marx, their ability “turn a phrase” and paint visual images through their manipulation of the English language has taught me that anything is possible with written language.

What are you working on now?
I am currently working on four books! COLE SHOOT #5 and CROSS of COLE #6 in the Cole Sage Series, The Time Pedaler, a young adult Time Travel book (hopefully a series), and a collection of short stories.

If I could just find a month to just hide away, I could wrap all of them up and get them to my editor! So far I haven’t found that month on a calendar anywhere!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m hoping Awesomegang is going to be the secret!

I love doing interviews. Interviews give readers a chance to get a good idea who the person is they are about to invest their time and money in. If they like you as a person or find what you have to say interesting they’re more apt to give your work a try.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t try to be someone your not. Just write. Write as you speak, write as you think. Most of all just write. I think a lot of new authors get so wrapped up in the process, and the image of themselves as a writer they lose sight of who they are as a person. I like the example of the preacher who gets up and gives a great sermon, communicates to the folks in the pews heart to heart, and suddenly kicks into King James English with lots of Thees and Thous when he prays. I like to think just as God would like to be spoken to in our normal voice; writers need to speak in their own voice when they speak to their readers.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I had a History teacher in high school that told us the job of any educated person was to be a modern Renaissance man. I think that advice has served me very well. I have tried to fill my need to create and learn in a lot of different ways. Through travel, film making, painting, wood carving, bowl turning, writing, reading, and continued education, long after earning my degree, I have led a full and enriched life. I have worked in jobs that gave me the ability to share my love of film and music on the radio and in print. I have traveled to almost 40 countries and tried to reach out to people and submerge in their culture.

I have tried to and learned, from many, many different means. Most of all I have tried to be a Renaissance man.

What are you reading now?
Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson.

I have been a life long student of the life of T.E. Lawrence. I was very excited when this new biography came out. In my personal library I have three shelves of books by, and about Lawrence. Imagine my delight when on the first page of this new book I read an antidote I had never heard before. Anderson is an amazing writer and his fluidity brings to life facets of Lawrence’s life and character that are, though not always new, presented in a fresh and interesting new way. Great book.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m excited to finish a couple projects I’ve had to put on the back burner as the Cole Sage series has taken off. I mentioned the time travel book that is nearly finished, I think that is going to be a lot of fun for Jr. High and High School kids. I’m waist deep in a western based on a favorite song of mine. How’s that for a tease?

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 Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies

2) Bob Dylan – Lyrics: 1962-2001

3) Bartlett’s Book of Quotes

4) The Bible

Author Websites and Profiles
Micheal Maxwell Website
Micheal Maxwell Amazon Profile

Micheal Maxwell’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a writer and I am a storyteller. I am one of those old farts who hangs out at the campfire and tells you stories about what happens to hitchhikers and people who say “Candyman-candyman-candyman-candyman-candyman” in front of the bathroom mirror.

I would rather tell you a story – either a funny one or a scary one – than breathe.

Trust me, if you could smell my breath right now you would rather me tell you a story than breathe as well.

I’m not saying I’m hygienic.

I really could not tell you just how many books I have written.

I’ve got seven releases through a regional publisher. I’ve had about a dozen or two dozen small press releases over the years. I have almost thirty independent releases.

I just can’t keep count. I’d need to hire an accountant with an abacus up his ass to keep track of everything that I have written.

I’m not bragging – I’m just obsessed. I tend to think in plot and I have a deep-seated need to spin yarns.

Are you hearing me?

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book that I would like to brag about is called UNCLE BOB’S RED FLANNEL BIBLE CAMP – FROM EDEN TO THE ARK.

So what is it about, you ask?

Well, let me put it this way.

Forget about Russell Crowe. He is cute in a sort of homely “I-have-lived-off-of-sausage-and-custard-and-bean-sprouts” kind of way but he doesn’t have ANYTHING on Uncle Bob.

Do you want to know what this book is about?

Let me put it to you this way.

Did you ever wonder how your favorite uncle might explain the Bible to you if you asked him to?

Just pick up a copy of UNCLE BOB’S RED FLANNEL BIBLE CAMP – FROM EDEN TO THE ARK and find out for yourself.

UNCLE BOB is the first book in a series that will eventually retell the entire OLD TESTAMENT.

I have always been interested in the old Bible tales and I have always enjoyed retelling stories in my own particular fashion. I dislike mimetic retellings – folks who just memorize the way it was written down and rattle it off like they were trying to impress their girlfriend by reciting Edgar Allan Poe’s THE RAVEN.

Take it from me. That just doesn’t do it at all.

I don’t make fun of God or religion or the old tales – I just have fun retelling them. The way I figure it all of those old boys – Samson and Moses and David and Adam – didn’t really realize that they were supposed to be biblical. They were way too busy just trying to make it through their day.

Remember – God invented giggling.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Sure – but you would have to ask my cat and she isn’t talking.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Charles Bukowski

Joe Lansdale

Mark Twain

Steven Leacock

Milton Acorn

Stephen Hunter

Robert Parker

Richard Stark

Larry McMurtry

What are you working on now?
I have just finished the second volume of UNCLE BOB’S SAGA – which winds up retelling the rest of the Book of Genesis.

I am pausing to finish a Bigfoot novel that has been sitting patiently on the back burner for some time now.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still trying to figure that one out. I know that I do not sell nearly as many books as I ought to be selling. I have bad luck in promoting my work. I don’t think that it is anything I am doing wrong so much as it is I haven’t figured out the RIGHT way to do it just yet.

Give me time.

The Ark wasn’t built in day, you know.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing.

Don’t fart around on the internet.

I do that too much and it slows me down considerably.

Write faster. Write more. LEARN HOW TO PROMOTE EFFECTIVELY. You don’t sell your books then who is reading them?

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write one book.

Write the next.

Sell the first book.

Write a third while you are selling the second.

Do I need to keep going here?

Writing is a game of stones upon water. You keep chucking those stones out into the deep end of the swimming hole trying to make a ripple that will someday reach the sea.

We’re all ten years old in these here parts.

What are you reading now?
One more darned question, I guess.

(grin)

I just finished reading a Grisham novel that was fun and well-plotted but ultimately mind candy. The fact is I don’t particularly care for deep world-shaking novels. I like mind candy. Keeps me fat and happy.

What’s next for you as a writer?
One more darned book, I guess.

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 couple of big fat ones – maybe the Sholokov Don Cossack series.

Author Websites and Profiles
Steve Vernon Website
Steve Vernon Amazon Profile
Steve Vernon Author Profile on Smashwords

Steve Vernon’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an author living in South Africa. I write juvenile fiction, animal rescue books, and historical romance – quite a mix. My middle grade adventure series The Chronicles of the Stone is a wonderful adventure series that takes two young heroes and their sidekick pal across continents to discover and reunite seven mystical stones. History, geography, mythology, archaeology and culture all rolled into an adrenalin-raising mix of action and adventure. I write historical romance under a pseudonym, Arabella Sheraton, and my romances are all set in the Regency era. A lot of fun as well, with some intrigue and dastardly deeds thrown in. Close to my heart are my animal rescue books, designed as fund-raisers for various animal sites that have saved animals and need funding.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
In the middle grade action series, I have just completed Book Three in The Chronicles of the Stone, and this one is entitled The Temple of the Crystal Timekeeper. Set in the jungles of Mexico, our young heroes battle with a enemy that has dogged their footsteps since Egypt, as well as a new Nemesis in the form of a villain who has assumed the persona of a bloodthirsty Aztec god. More thrills and spills as the kids crash-land into the jungle with absolutely nothing to help them but their wits and ingenuity. Is this enough to keep them alive while they search for the Third Stone of Power? My original book, The Secret of the Sacred Scarab, was inspired by a trip to Egypt with my mom and my two young nephews. From there more books just sprang to life.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Alas, nothing really sensational apart from listening to movie soundtracks very loudly and probably annoying the neighbours… I hope they like Pirates of the Caribbean, my current fave.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
It’s hard to say because I absolutely love books and movies and read widely. I can’t remember learning to read. I think I was born with a book in my hand.

What are you working on now?
I am forging ahead with Book Four: The Cabal of the Ouroboros, set in France. My young heroes will uncover a secret dating from the Knights Templar…

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I really think putting up book covers, descriptions, extracts and details on sites like this. Keep looking and you find all sorts of marketing opportunities. Be generous and give away copies of your book. It is worth it because people will then want more and will buy your subsequent books. An interesting anecdote: my young cousin (11) took her copy of my book to school. The history teacher pounced on it and her classes loved it so much that she kept borrowing it. Finally I sent the school their own copy. Each year I get loads of fan mail from kids who loved it!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
1. Never give up.
2. Make sure your book meets the stringent industry standards (get an editor).
3. Tell everyone you know and ask them to tell everyone they know about your book.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
From Penny Sansivieri of Author Marketing Experts (AME): Marketing does not sell books. Marketing creates publicity and publicity sells books. Tell everyone you know about your book.

What are you reading now?
The Murder Room by P.D. James

What’s next for you as a writer?
Finishing Book Four, and completing my next animal rescue book The Poppy Project (about a famous Fijian dog that had reconstructive surgery on her snout and got a new life)

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
All Jane Austen’s novels
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Author Websites and Profiles
Fiona Ingram Website
Fiona Ingram Amazon Profile
Fiona Ingram Author Profile on Smashwords

Fiona Ingram’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Aaron L might be a newcomer to the creation of fiction but is not one when it comes to the arts and all things creative. Growing up in places from Seattle to South Africa, he spent a lot of his time drawing. Aaron always knew that his future lay in a creative field. In 2010, he graduated with a degree in graphic design. Although the usual application of this degree is in the creation of different types of art and design, Aaron chose instead to focus his creative skills on the task of storytelling. He lives near Chicago, Illinois. This is his debut novel.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I feel very strongly about the breakdown of the family and fatherless children and how there is much dysfunction and despair because of it. I wanted to tell a story to shed some light on the situations that many face and hopefully bring some type of reversal to the current dynamic in whatever small way I could. I wanted to challenge men, fathers especially, to be who they were created to be … its certainly a challenge I face myself daily. A challenge that I often fail at but keeping picking myself up to start again.

). I patterned the book in part after GONE WITH THE WIND (another book set in the south) … not in the sense of a love story but in the sense of “here is civilization that is about to cease to exist, come see it before its gone”. In the case of my novel it is a spiritual civilization on the brink. Dallas just seemed to have everything I needed to make the story work from both a symbolic and technical standpoint.

My co-author and I researched deeply into ancient history for some aspects of the book … I learned a lot of things … some things I’d rather forget but most of it was enlightening. What I liked best was that it confirmed for me mostly what I already knew, there really is nothing new under the sun.

 

Author Websites and Profiles
Aaron L Website
Aaron L Amazon Profile

Aaron L’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been a science fiction/fantasy fan for ages. I am a technology guy and writing stories about future or even new fantasy worlds was always something I wanted to do. When I was growing up, one of the first books I read was the complete works of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. To me, Doyle’s writings were mystery/detective stories, they were fantasy set in Victorian England. After reading so many books over the years, I had plenty of ideas for something of my own, but never had the nerve nor the time to actually follow through with it. One day, I was helping move some boxes from my parents’ home, when I happened upon a box with one of my old short stories. It was titled, “Into the Black”. I decided there and then I was going to write. Today, Embrace, the first book of my science fiction series, The Epherium Chronicles, has been published by Carina Press. The second book of the series, Crucible, will be released on May 26, 2014.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The current book of my debut science fiction series, The Epherium Chronicles, is titled Embrace. It was inspired by a short story I wrote several years ago, but many aspects of the characters come from things I’ve experienced. The main character, James Hood, has a love for playing chess. The security officer, Maya Greywalker, is a genetically altered human who was modified to fight a disease similar to Parkinson’s, which my father currently suffers from. I based the chief engineer after, Thomas Edison, a terrific inventor, but not a great personality.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have a full time and very busy job, as well as a family. So my writing time is generally in the evening when everyone is asleep. The only other time have to write is on planes or in a hotel room when I’m travelling.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
There are several authors and their works that have influenced me. I’ve mentioned Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but JRR Tolkien,C.S. Lewis and Mary Shelley were early favorites. More recent fantasy and sci-fi authors I really love to read are Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, R.A, Salvatore, Jim Butcher, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Jordan, and Micheal A. Stackpole.

What are you working on now?
I working on book three of the series. It’s title is Echoes. I have two other book series I have mapped out, not just in my head, but in a spreadsheet. I just have to find time to put the story on the pages.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook does well and I’ve found good success getting exposure with Google+. I am in process of doing a book blast which will take part on several blogs and later a blog tour when Crucible is released. I’ve have to let you know the results from that.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read what you love and things you wouldn’t consider, just to see how they flow. Take notion of style when you write. Don’t get discouraged. We all do. Write, read it. Fix, then write more. Take time at the beginning to plan. I’ve tried to National Novel Writing Month from scratch and that was an epic fail. I wasted half the month doing character development and scene placement.

Writing is like golf. Chi-Chi Rodriguez said that golf is game of never ending improvement. You are never as good as you want to be and we all need constant practice.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Not everyone will like what you create. Just take it as gospel. Don’t get frustrated and discouraged, but treat it as moment to connect and find out why. Get feedback. It’s crucial. It may not change what you have, but by building the connection you might see something in a different way than you did before and turn a critic into a future fan.

What are you reading now?
Michael J Sullivan’s Theft of Swords and Brent Week’s The Black Prism are on my Kindle. I’ve almost finished the first book. I want to get The Black Prism read soon, because Jim Butcher’s next Dresden Files novel, Skin Game, is coming in May.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Once I finish Echoes, I plan to start on one of the other series I have mapped out. I need to get with my agent find a publisher and also map out scenes for Books 4 and 5 of The Epherium Chronicles. If I can do all that, work, spend good quality time with my family, and no go completely insane, I can call this a victory.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Bible is the first one. As a Christian, it would be a constant source of strength as I would search for rescue. The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes would be another. If anyone could analyze and deduce a way off that island, it would be him. My old Boy Scout handbook would be a welcome survival guide. I would definitely need a book to help my mind escape the current surroundings. It would have to be Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Author Websites and Profiles
T.D. Wilson Website
T.D. Wilson Amazon Profile

T.D. Wilson’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a bit of an oddball. I saw myself as a comedian and I’ve always dreamed of doing sketch comedy. A Guardian Angel (my latest novel)is not like that at all. I’ve written three novels before this one, two self published as print only (I was 15) and the other lost in a hard drive malfunction (now I back my files up).

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
It’s called A Guardian Angel. First, I wrote Part One of the book as a standalone novella, but it was ill recieved (even by my friends). At the same time, I was working on a story about a rancher who’s farm was crushed by a gigantic metal angel (Part Two of the book). That portion is actually inspired by a Porcupine Tree song called “Trains.” Then the whole thing unfurled from there.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
“Unusual” might imply that I know what most writers do. I have routines, that’s for sure — listen to music, lock the door, yadda yadda. I write what I dream, often. I’ll have the core of the story figured out in advance, but certain phrases and scenes are stolen from my dreams because they’re so out of place that it sticks with you. I can’t whisk those things from thin air.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Douglas Adams is my absolute favorite author because I am a cynical comedian at heart. Hitchhiker’s Guide is largely responsible for the tone of Alfred Arnold, a fantastical series I started at 15 years old and plan to rewrite after my current project (untitled thus far). Even though Adams is my favorite author, Catch-22 is my favorite novel and, like mental tattoos, I shall always have quotes to throw out.

What are you working on now?
The working title is Sedated, and I don’t like the name so far. It’s a shorter story about a man who lives an alternate life through a series of persistent dreams. Every time he goes to sleep, he finds himself exactly where he had left his previous slumber. This second life becomes an addiction for him, and after his first nightmare he is forced to choose between the waking world and the imaginary one.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This is my first serious push into promotion, and it’s a bit overwhelming as a newbie but I enjoy that (masochism, perhaps?). I use twitter and I get people with a following to check out my work and say, “Hey, this is great!” or “Hey guys, this blows.” So far, the latter hasn’t happened yet, but opinions are rarely invalid when in the realm of art.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Persistence is your mission. You’re swimming in a vast sea of uncertainty, where you can see shades of doubt and anxiety darting deep beneath your kicking feet. Once you get to the shore, that’s when you’ve made it and you can enjoy your writing career in abundance. It’s impossible to say how far the shore is in all these ebbing waves, but you must keep swimming. Once you give up on writing, that’s when you drown.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” – Stephen King.

What are you reading now?
The Lord of the Rings. I love books like that, but ever since going into school, it’s difficult to read for leisure. My mother got me my own copies because she’s the greatest LotR fan I have ever met (our dog’s name was Arwen, and one of our llamas was Strider). Everyone should read them, especially if you enjoyed the movies because they compliment each other much rather than compete.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To continue writing, of course! I do it because I love it, and the fact that other people enjoy it makes it all the sweeter. I haven’t even cracked the head of the iceberg.

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?
Catch-22, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.

Author Websites and Profiles
Phoenix Williams Website

Phoenix Williams’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi there. My name is Carolyn Scott. I live in Australia, down in the south eastern part. Like all Aussies, I love the beach, barbies (not the skinny doll kind, the ones that cook food), and other summer activities. I’ve worked in libraries (unfortunately they were legal libraries and incredibly boring), as well as in IT support and as a technical writer. I’m married, have 2 kids and a black and white cat who likes to get my attention by sitting on the keyboard when I’m typing. I’ve written 3 mystery novels and 2 novellas (short novels) under this name, but I’ve also written more than a dozen stories under my historical pen-name, C.J. Archer. I’ve had short stories published in magazines in Australia and England. Writing is my passion. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Eeny Meany Miny Die is the latest full-length novel in the Cat Sinclair mystery series which features Cat, ex-actress and wannabe P.I. The character of Cat came to me at a low point in my life. I hated my job. I was so bored. I used to write stories when the boss wasn’t looking even though I was supposed to be working. Cat is the same. She usually falls asleep or surfs the net to escape the mind-numbing boredom of her office job. There’s actually a lot of me in Cat. She’s snarky and everyone thinks she’s tough on the outside, but underneath it all, she has a heart of gold. She loves her friends, her family, and even grows to like her boss in a, er, special way. I love Cat to bits, and I hope you’ll fall in love with her too as she gets into and out of scrapes.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels. Reading them was a revelation. Prior to that, most books I’d read were stuffy classics or modern literary novels.

What are you working on now?
I’m writing the next Cat Sinclair novel. It’s not titled yet.

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

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Learn from books you love and authors you admire, and keep on writing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The above – just keep writing.

What are you reading now?
A Hanover Square Affair – it’s a mystery series set in Regency England, combining my twin loves of mystery and history.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ll just keep on writing more books under both my Carolyn Scott name and C.J. Archer pen name.

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?
Just 3 or 4? That’s harsh. I think I’d have to take books I haven’t read yet. There’s no point taking books I’ve already read!

Author Websites and Profiles
Carolyn Scott Website
Carolyn Scott Amazon Profile

Carolyn Scott’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
To be honest, this is the first book I have ever completed. I’ve written short stories, poetry, prose, graphic novels, and just about everything except for a full-length book. This is my latest challenge, and I’m proud of my accomplishment.
I’m 26, but I’ve been writing since the age of 11. I was inspired by an English teacher to take up the pen, and I haven’t put it down.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The book is called In the Days: A Tale of the Forgotten Continent. It is a gripping story of intrigue, murder, assassins, and mayhem in the fictional Empire of Atlantis.
I have always loved the concept of Atlantis. A land no one knows about, with no written records of the history of this now-forgotten continent. I’ve turned this mystery into one that I would love to read, and gave it a twist that I hope will be surprising to those that turn the pages of the book.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I love to listen to dubstep and techno music while writing, preferably while chewing gum and drinking hot, very potent cappuccino. I cannot stop writing until I finish a chapter, or I feel like I left something unfinished.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve found myself influenced by every author I read, but a few have contributed to my journey more than others:
Arthur Conan Doyle
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Scott Lynch
Glen Cook
C.S. Lewis

What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on a graphic novel, which will be released in a few weeks. I’m also about to start working on a new story about a legendary assassin with a mysterious past. I’m hoping to finish it before the end of the year.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I find that just striking up conversations with people has been the most effective. I’ve been chatting people on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and book forums really allows me to connect one-on-one with readers that love a good book. No shameless self-promotion, but talking with people and getting to know them.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Start now! Don’t wait until your book is done to start meeting people, making new friends, and expanding your network. When your book is finally launched, all of the people that have accompanied you on your journey as an author will be your best readers.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It comes from my brother-in-law, Peter J Story:

Faith in yourself is a tricky subject, especially without higher faith in a greater power. However, I find that faith can apply fairly evenly across the spectrum of authors of varying religions or lack thereof. Personally, faith in myself translates into two primary elements. First of all, it’s faith that I’m a skilled writer. The best writer? No–I couldn’t care less who is, which means it’s not me, and that takes a load off all on its own. Skilled enough to disregard further learning? Of course not–I’m of the firm belief that no matter how adept humans get at any given talent, there’s always room to grow. So, with that out of the way, I can have faith in the simple truth that I can group words in a sensible way to tell a story very well. Secondly, I know that whatever I desire to write, if it interests me enough to write it, then someone else out there will be interested in reading it. And likewise, if it’s interesting enough to me, there should be a large number of others out there who want it.

What are you reading now?
I’m currently diving into the Riyria series by Mark Lawrence, trying to finish off Glen Cook’s latest Garrett P.I. novel: Wicked Bronze Ambition, and hoping that no one tells me the ending of Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance before I can finish it.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve loved comics since I was a young adult, so I’m looking forward to the launch of the graphic novel I scripted. I’m also excited about the new series I’m going to start on, just as soon as I can reach my goal of breaking even with my debut 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?
The next 3 or 4 Scott Lynch novels. I have to see what happens to Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen.

Author Websites and Profiles
Andy Peloquin Website
Andy Peloquin Amazon Profile

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

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
When I was forced to leave the workforce in 2000 by the onslaught of MS, I saw this as an opportunity to explore my lifelong desire to write.

I believe that anything is possible and when I write fiction, I lean towards the paranormal. I write about extrasensory powers as if they are commonplace because, in my mind, we are all capable of those gifts.

To date, I am the author of three published paranormal novels, including the award winning The Bond, A Paranormal Love Story. My fourth paranormal novel, A Little Poison – the sequel to Missing Flowers – should be out sometime in 2014.

In late February 2014, I independently published my first non fiction book, On The Right Side, My Story of Survival and Success.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest work is On The Right Side, My Story of Survival and Success. This book was inspired by the first thirteen years of me having MS. I realized that although I can see the advantages of having a chronic illness and my life rearranged, many people can’t. I want to show them that change isn’t the end and with a little adjusting, it can lead to better things.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I love to put in a CD and listen to music on headphones while writing.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My paternal grandmother, Katherine Magill, was a big influence on me. So many times when I do things I hope that she would be proud of me.

What are you working on now?
Right now I am working on a career change as a positive energy mentor. This title encompasses the motivational author/speaker/life coach. I am navigating my way around finding ways to promote my self in the industry.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have manage to get a lot of support. hints and promotion through Facebook and the people I have met on there.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing and remember that the first draft NEVER signifies a finished book.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Get an editor!

What are you reading now?
Besides the books on life coaching, I am going to start reading an ARC of a Joss Landry’s new book. I’m excited for that.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Sometime this year, Saga Books should be publishing A Little Poison, the sequel to the paranormal mystery Missing Flowers. These two books are set in Vancouver and combine the paranormal fiction with historical facts.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Complete Works of Shakespeare – that would take me forever to get through – anything by Stephen King or John Saul. An Ann Rule collection would be good too.

Author Websites and Profiles
Karen Magill Website
Karen Magill Amazon Profile

Karen Magill’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a former journalist/editor born and still living in the UK, and so far I have written and released five books – all within the same series (Wildfire Chronicles).

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recent book was titled ‘Trauma (Wildfire Chronicles Vol. 5)’, released at the start of March 2014.

I’m a huge fan of horror, and I always wanted to write a series about the ‘zombie apocalypse’ but I was keen to come at it from a different angle. So in Wildfire Chronicles the zombies aren’t supernatural in any way: they aren’t undead. It’s a man-made disaster.

The series was inspired, in part, by reading about conspiracy theories and thinking ‘what if?’
At the same time I was playing with this idea of imagining James-Bond style supervillains who proceed with their plan to destroy the world with no James Bond to stop them. So many stories follow people preventing the bad guys from carrying out their plans, and I thought it would be an interesting start point for my story if the villains succeeded, and ordinary people were left to deal with the consequences.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Probably the time at which I write is the most unusual part of my process: often I work through the night, and a lot of my best writing is done at three in the morning. It means that often I end up with a sleep schedule not too dissimilar to vampires, but I figure that’s pretty appropriate for a horror author!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
All the big names in horror dominated my youth: King, Koontz, Barker, Herbert. More recently I’ve enjoyed the work of Jack Ketchum and JA Konrath. But I’ve also been influenced a lot by science fiction and some fantasy. Most notably for the former: Iain M Banks, William Gibson, Richard K Morgan and Dan Simmons.

On the fantasy front I read Lord of the Rings repeatedly as a child, and also a lot of stuff by Weiss and Hickman. I guess I fell in love with the idea of living in fictional worlds and that’s really stayed with me ever since.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on the final installment of Wildfire Chronicles, which I hope will be released around the end of May 2014, and prepping another horror that I hope to release this summer, and that I’m pretty excited about, but can’t give any details just yet!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My best method for getting my name out there has been to give away the first part of my series for free. I recognize that there are a lot of books out there, and a lot of great authors, so rather than asking readers to pay to take a chance on an unfamiliar name, I decided to offer them a chance to sample my work at no cost.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be professional and be patient. Of course every author would love to write a book that breaks out and becomes a smash hit, but my view is it’s best to keep producing, and keep giving readers a chance to discover and (hopefully) enjoy your books.

My own take on publishing itself is to approach it professionally: covers, editing, website – even the way you carry yourself on social media. Don’t take shortcuts. Of course there are no guarantees in this business, but I figure that if you set yourself up for success, you’re giving yourself the best possible chance of attaining it, whether that’s with your first book or your tenth.

Finally, I’d say be prepared for the reality that some people will dislike your work, and handle criticism with grace. No book ever written has received universal acclaim.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“If you’re not writing, you’re not a writer.”

I spent years telling myself that I would write a book ‘soon’ – and I’d spend hours dreaming up plotlines and characters but never actually get around to doing the work. The best advice to me was to get my hands on a keyboard and start typing.

What are you reading now?
Just finished ‘Alone: the girl in the Box’ by Robert Crane, which I enjoyed, and about to start reading ‘Doctor Sleep’ by Stephen King, which I’m really looking forward to! I’ve got a huge to-read pile, and not enough time to spend reading as much as I’d like.

What’s next for you as a writer?
A new horror in the summer: depending on how that goes it might be a stand-alone novel, but the potential is there for a sequel/series if the readers want more. I’m also looking into working on some apps and audiobooks, and working on getting Wildfire Chronicles adapted for the screen.

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?
‘Lord of the Rings’ by Tolkien
‘Hyperion Omnibus’ by Dan Simmons
‘How to survive on a desert island’ by R. Crusoe

Author Websites and Profiles
K.R. Griffiths Website
K.R. Griffiths Amazon Profile
K.R. Griffiths Author Profile on Smashwords

K.R. Griffiths’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
This is my first book and my co-author second book. We love the world and unlimited imagination of children and being able to write and create in that world.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Sprocketeers: Great Giza Gonzo is my first book of the series of other Sprocketeers adventures, to follow. A long time friend, Ben Cornwell, who is a sales guy that works in the merch world, approached me two years ago about doing an animated children’s educational history series with a steampunk flare to it. Through research, we found out that no one would financially support it, to give it the light of day at that time and we decided to do something that would be more of an action adventure, steampunk based around the twins, Alyx and Cooper. My team and I created the synopsis, character descriptions, scripts and illustrations for all aspects of The Sprocketeers. It was my idea to establish our concept as a book first and then we hope into an animated project.

The inspiration for writing The Sprocketeers was based off a lot of influences John and I have had growing up including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dr. Seuss, and various action adventure books we read when we were children and books we still reflect upon. Beyond books there are lots of animation, art, historical influences and children we actually know that gave us a load of inspiration to create this book. We also found that Chris Friend’s art work, our illustrator on the project. to give us a huge amount of inspiration as he made a lot of images come alive in his work with us. The book project was very collaborative effort by John Stapleton, Chris Friend and Zach Hall.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
OH Yes!! Whenever ideas come to me and I am not at my desk, laptop or smart device, I jot down notes, phrases, ideas on any piece of paper or otherwise that I can get my hands on and sometimes even on my hands. A lot swirls around in my head before it hits the computer or the paper. I’ve learned it’s best to write it all down one way or another before the idea leaves me.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Dr. Seuss, E.B. White, Encyclopedia Brown, Fancy Nancy, Hardy Boys, and really digging the Rosie Revere and Andrea Beaty’s current works

What are you working on now?
Currently, I am working on a new children’s book about fish and life, due out in April 2014, a book on dirt for all children and some child like adults and another book on if a heart had arms. We also have a pile of ideas for future Sprocketeer adventures.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
We are still trying to figure that out since it is my first book and we are without a publisher ad DIY. We have been trying Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and our own website:

https://www.facebook.com/TheSprocketeers

http://worldofthesprocketeers.com

Amazon: http://ezrd.me/r/?rd=082U9YSprock

Do you have any advice for new authors?
ebooks, for children, are great avenue for those of us without publishers and can be done with a small amount of costs compared to the traditional print method. it’s super helpful to build a community of other authors, book or reading enthusiast around your genre or topic. The world wide web is the best tool for most of this.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I’m constantly hearing great advice and words of wisdom. Here’s are couple I put at the top of the list:

It’s better to have tried and failed, than never have tried at all

Use keywords in your title

You can always take a positive from a negative

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows

What are you reading now?
“Raising Happiness” by Christine Carter and “Animals Make Us Human” by Temple Grandin

What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to explore creating more variations on children’s book and also illustrate one or two of them myself. I have a endless list of ideas for children’s books and I want to create a colorful, in more ways than one, open world of imagination that would inspire young readers to do amazing things.

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 , The Places You Will Go”, “LaChapelle Land”, “Meditations to Change Your Brain”, “How to Get off a Deserted Island Fast”

Author Websites and Profiles
Sundae Sundae Website
Sundae Sundae Amazon Profile

Sundae Sundae’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Currently I have eight full novels, and a number of short stories and multiple novel collections all available at Amazon.com

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My last published work was BENNINGTON P.I. “Take two and call me in the morgue”. It is the second full novel in the Bennington P.I. series.

I am currently working on my next novel, MAC WALKER’S 40,000 Feet which will be the fifth full Mac Walker book to be made available to readers.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I will sometimes get up and act out a scene in my head while walking around the room. It helps me to visualize it. I imagine if someone walked in, they would be certain I was in need of serious psychiatric evaluation. They might be right of course…

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, Tom Clancy, Stephen King, JD Salinger, and many-many more.

What are you working on now?
“MAC WALKER’S 40,000 Feet”

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My blog is of great help as it enjoys thousands of regular readers already. My many followers on Facebook have been a great help as well.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Each author is different. Writing cannot be forced, but rather inspired. There are weeks where I struggle, and then days when I literally can’t stop the story from being told.

It’s a tough road, to be sure. Writing, promoting, re-writing, promoting some more, watching sales rise, then fall, and wondering why.

And if you have a thin skin, you best prepare. While most readers can be very supportive, there are some who seem to delight in the particularly dismissive and/or abusive review.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
To be a writer requires one write.

It pretty much comes down to that point where ideas form words, which in turn, create a story. There’s no shortcut – you simply have to get to it.

What are you reading now?
Charles Krauthammer’s “Things That Matter”.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Hopefully great success!

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

The Poems of Dylan Thomas

Fahrenheit 451

The Stand

Author Websites and Profiles
D.W. Ulsterman Website
D.W. Ulsterman Amazon Profile

D.W. Ulsterman’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an Irish writer, mother of four incorrigible but lovely kids and a teacher. In a previous life I was a university lecturer of history and a tour director for groups of Americans visiting Ireland. I’ve written two books. The first is called The Tour and it is a lighthearted novel set on a bus tour of Ireland. A group of American visitors and their Irish tour guide learn a lot about each other an themselves as a disparate group of strangers find their lives and stories intertwining in poignant and sometimes funny ways. It is not a memoir, though some of the characters are amalgams of people I met over the years.

My second book is a historical novel called So Much Owed.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
So Much Owed – the title is taken from Winston Churchill’s iconic speech where he praised the work of the RAF stating that ‘never in the history of human conflict, was so much owed, by so many, to so few.’

The story begins and the end of the First World War and follows the lives of the Buckley family of Dunderrig House in West Cork, Ireland. This book is really a fictionalization of the research I did for a PhD which was related to the activities of Irish Women in the Allied forces during WW2. I realize academic writing is not for me so I prefer to use my academic background to write fiction.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Well as a mother of four its a miracle I even have a writing habit! I suppose the thing that surprises my friends is that I can write anywhere, for ten minutes or for ten hours. The noise level around me is irrelevant, I grew up with five brothers and sisters and our house was like a train station so you had to learn to block out noise if you wanted to focus on anything. I don’t need to get ‘in the zone’, I can just pick up the story where I left of almost instantly.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I am influenced by so many writers and I dream of having the powers of description of authors like Sebastian Faulks, or the warmth of Maeve Binchy. I remember reading Captian Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres when I was about 20 and I never wanted it to end. The film was a terrible dissappointment. The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas by John Boyne made me cry, while A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka hade me laugh out loud. I read anything Bill Bryson writes, he is hilarious and fascinating.

What are you working on now?
At the moment I’m writing a book that connects 2016 in New York with 1916 in Ireland. 1916 was the year of the Irish Revolution and one item of supreme historical significance, which is believed to have been destroyed, reemerges. The item links strangers a century apart.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Well I’m not sure. By far the most lucrative was a Bookbub promotion I ran on my first book earlier this year. I blog, (not as much as I should) but for me its a lot of trial and error. I’ve been very fortunate and my book sell well, not enough to retire yet but certainly heading that way.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just write. Don’t get too hung up on editing as you write. Get the words down on the page any way you can. Once you have a product you can fix it but we are inclined to rewrite too much in the early stages. I just get the story down while its happening in my head, complete with misspells and passive voice and all the other mortal sins and then get my editors to carve it up afterwards. By the way, you DEFINITELY need an editor. Everyone does.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Pay a good editor.

What are you reading now?
the first draft of a friend’s novel. I’m loving it. Other writers are great people to bounce ideas off, and a great support.

What’s next for you as a writer?
My goal is to match my salary from my permanent pensionable job and become a full time writer. I’m hopeful that I can achieve that in 2-4 years.

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?
Empty ones. So I could pass the time away making things up and writing them down 😉

And a thesaurus.

Author Websites and Profiles
Jean Grainger Website
Jean Grainger Amazon Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born and reside in Toronto, Canada. I began writing notes and cards as a young child to people I loved and admired. When I left home as a teen, I began journaling through the years about my concerns and thoughts in analysis of my life. Coming from a broken home, I was often drawn into the middle of my parent’s conflicts and I took the comfort of pen and paper as a means for an outlet to sort my thoughts and understand the people and events in my life. As one who enjoyed writing, I decided to put my words into books and published my first book in 2013, Conflicted Hearts. I love to write about real-life experiences and so I write as a nonfiction-memoir writer.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My debut book is titled Conflicted Hearts – A daughter’s quest for solace from emotional guilt. The book was written after years of compiling memories in my journal, beginning with a tumultuous childhood living in a constant dysfunction with my parent’s marriage and a narcissistic mother. The book takes you further into my life adventures as I grew up guided by my own decisions; some good and bad. Throughout my life that reign of guilt I carried from my mother always followed me.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know if it’s unusual but perhaps more old school, but I don’t seem to be as creative in front of a computer and so I write in long-hand. After first draft I begin my revisions while entering my work into the computer. I also tend to get some great inspiration in the strangest places where I will find myself frantically looking for one of my five pens I usually have on me and a piece of something to write down a fleeting idea.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jane Austen, William Zinsser, SARK.

What are you working on now?
I am currently in final revisions with my upcoming book Meno-What? – The Memoir, a humorous take on my journey through menopause.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This is always a tricky question. For writers promoting their work it is sometimes a process of trial and error to find the right site which is most effective for a particular genre. I have used quite a few and some were successful for me while some others were not. My advice is to read the ‘about’ pages carefully wherever one chooses to advertise to get a good grasp on where your book will be displayed and to what kind of reader it will appeal to and also to the promoting site’s size of reader list for exposure.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write every day. Commit to a set goal of either a word count or a time frame to write. Don’t stop along the way to edit or correct, keep writing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t write with the expectations of fame or fortune for it is a long road or a stroke of luck to get there. Write because you love to. Put forth your best (edited) work always.

What are you reading now?
Write. Publish. Repeat. by Pratt and Truant also, It Was The Best of Sentences, It Was The Worst of Sentences by June Casagrande.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I am working on finishing first draft of my third book, a novella of short stories about women’s self-esteem. Later in the year I will be completing my sequel to Conflicted Hearts.

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 Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough and some books of enlightenment by Deepak Chopra.

Author Websites and Profiles
D.G. Kaye Website
D.G. Kaye Amazon Profile

D.G. Kaye’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account