Awesome Author Interviews

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Drew and I am originally from Mississippi. I joined the navy when I was seventeen as an aviation electrician. I have served for almost fourteen years. I am married with two daughters, and I live in Virginia. I have published six books/novellas, with many more to come.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Raven. It is part of The Twin Cities Series which is a group effort of five different authors. It is in the urban fantasy genre and it was inspired by The Dresden Files universe, though this series is not associated with Jim Butcher’s series in any way.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I start a lot of projects that never get completed (yet). Maybe every writer does it, but when you have ten projects in work at once, it’s kind of overwhelming…

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jim Butcher, Hugh Howey, Peter David, there are so many that it’s hard to remember them all.

What are you working on now?
Several things. Mor ein The Twin Cities Series, two books in The Dead Planet Series, a couple of novellas in the paranormal realm, and a middle grade adventure book.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use my blog to conduct interviews with other authors and have a link to my own work on each blog post. Between that and twitter I see a little action.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be patient, this doesn’t happen over night, and in most cases it will take years to get where you want to be. But don’t give up either.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write. Publish. Repeat. Don’t let anything stall you in writing your next book.

What are you reading now?
The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing even more stuff lol.

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?
Can I just bring a kindle loaded with everything that has an unlimited power supply? I seriously have no idea. My choice in books depends on my mood, though I would probably choose really thick books that take a while to read. That way I will feel like I get a bigger band for my buck…

Author Websites and Profiles
Drew Avera Website
Drew Avera Amazon Profile

Drew Avera’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was an ear surgeon, burned out, tried to retire, but I was underfoot too much at home, so I looked for something different to do. The Colorado Department of Corrections was advertising for a doctor to take care of the inmates at Colorado State Penitentiary (CSP), the state’s maximum-security prison. Well, that was different…

Maximum Insecurity is my first book, a memoir of my years at CSP.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I published Maximum Insecurity in December 2013. It’s a memoir of my years as the physician at Colorado State Penitentiary (CSP), the state’s maximum-security prison.

When I started to work at CSP I entered an alien world, unprepared and wide-eyed. I found so many weird situations and off-the-wall people, I started a journal to record some of it. The weirdness never stopped, and the journal became a book.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I often write in snatches between patients. Finding a whole hour to myself to just write is a luxury I seldom have. I need to do my writing on a word processor because my handwriting is so bad not even I can read it.

I try to outline what I’m going to write, but often something bizarre comes up at the prison and I have to write about it before it fades.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Robert B. Parker is the absolute best with tight dialog and vivid characterization. I’d give my…you know… to write half as well.
Terry Brooks can describe scenes that you can taste. I’d give my other…you know… to have his vision.
Rick Atkinson can make the history of WW2 read like an IMAX movie.
Preston and Child are incomparable with plot and suspense.
Jeffrey Deaver will make you lock your doors and keep the lights on at night. And maybe get a gun.
Richard Bach drags your dreamer out of the closet and infuses you with hope for the world.

What are you working on now?
The past year I’ve been medical director at the El Paso County jail. I’ve found a different kind of weirdness there, and it’s taking shape in my next book.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m a terrible social networker, but I know people who are great at it. I get my best results by influencing the influencers and letting them do the heavy lifting. If I give value to the people who run the blogs and newsletters, they’ll give the value back to me through their networks.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Nothing that they haven’t heard before. Write the best book you can, let a good editor chop it to pieces and write it again. Make sure there’s a market for your book. Put your book into the hands of people who influence that segment of the market. Your book is not for everybody. Some people will hate it no matter how good it is. Get over it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The secret to a successful marriage is the ten things you don’t say every day.

What are you reading now?
Rick Atkinson’s “The Guns at Last Light”
David Nasaw’s “The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst”
Lee Child’s “Never Go Back”

What’s next for you as a writer?
After I finish the book about being medical director at the county jail, I have two novels in desperate need of rewriting.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d bring my Nook with 50,000 books, a download of Angry Birds, and a solar charger. I’d probably bring a survival book of some kind too, and maybe a book on how to fix a solar charger.

Author Websites and Profiles
William Wright Website
William Wright Amazon Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I spent 20 years writing novels and subsequently being rejected by every major publishing company and agent in both the U.S. and UK. Finally, in 2010, I decided I had nothing left to lose and I self-published my first romance novel, “No Cure for the Broken Hearted.” Sales in the U.S. were better than I’d expected, but they really took off in the UK. The book ended up becoming a top ten overall bestseller on Amazon UK and the number one bestselling romance for several weeks. After that, I was hooked on self-publishing.

To stretch my dollars, I moved from California to Budapest, Hungary, where rents are two-thirds cheaper. During the previous 20 years or so, I worked all sorts of jobs, saving up enough money to take time off and write. Some of those jobs included working as a journalist for a business magazine, a snowboarding instructor, a dive master and a merchant seaman. I spent extended periods living and writing in Australia, Hawaii, Estonia, Portugal, Ukraine and Hungary.

For the past three years, most of my time has been split between California and Hungary. I’ve come out with three new books in that time, a romance set in Hollywood, “Sweet Ophelia,” a suspense set in Eastern Europe, “Natalia,” and a non-fiction book about my life, “Memoirs of a Starving Artist: An Itinerant Writer’s Journey through an Unconventional Life.”

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
When I graduated from college (UCLA), I thought I had to live a traditional life, with a 9 to 5 job, wife, kids, house, car payment, etc. I tried working at a few corporate jobs, but in the end I just couldn’t stand it. I’m far too independent. Instead, I decided to follow my own path and pursue a writing career. I haven’t had the commercial success that I’d hoped for, but I’ve led what I think is a somewhat extraordinary life. In any case, it is far outside the mainstream. Whenever I started telling my friends stories from my life, they always said, “You should write that up and make a book out of it!” Eventually, I decided that was a good idea. “Memoirs of a Starving Artist” is meant to be a portrait of what life can be like for someone who doesn’t follow the traditional path, including all of the ups and downs, the triumphs and the challenges.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to write in cafes where I can settle in with a coffee as the world goes spinning by all around me. I spent some time living in San Diego, which has some great coffee houses to write in, as well as Seattle. Part of the reason I spend so much time in Europe is that there is never a shortage of great cafes to write in over there.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Possibly my biggest influence was Ernest Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast,” which is his memoir of life as a struggling writer, living and writing in Paris in the 1920’s. Ever since I read that book, I’ve been on a bit of a quest to re-create that place and time. Of course, this is impossible, but I feel that I have come somewhat close in Budapest. Like Paris during the 20’s, Budapest is also relatively cheap and it has a great, artistic atmosphere. I’ve managed to carve out a social network there, and I have a whole list of favorite cafes to write in.

Another big influence on my was Melville’s “Moby Dick.” Reading that book inspired me to actually sign up in the merchant marines and go to sea. That was a great experience that I’ll always cherish.

What are you working on now?
My latest book is another Hollywood romance titled “Bachelor Number Five.” Here is the description:

“From the moment Amanda Perkins first laid eyes on Bachelor Number Five on her favorite dating show, she knew it was love at first sight. Handsome, smart and kind, Grant Hutchinson is everything she’s ever dreamed of in a man. The problem? She’s not a contestant. And she lives halfway across the country. These small details aren’t about to stop Amanda, who will do whatever it takes to win her man.”

I plan to have this book out in Spring 2014. This will be the first in a series of Bachelor books that will follow the lives of a group of characters that live in an apartment complex in Hollywood.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Marketing and promotion are constantly changing and evolving in the realm of ebook publishing. It’s hard to keep up, sometimes, but one great resource is the “Writer’s Cafe” forum over at kindleboards.com. Every indie writer should stop by there from time to time, in order to keep up with the latest strategies and see what their fellow indie authors have to say.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you plan to go the traditional route, be prepared to be patient. If you plan to go the indie route, all successful indie authors tend to do the same three things. 1) Write in a popular genre, 2) Write a series, 3) Crank out books as fast as you can. After I had success with my first novel, it took me eight months to get my next book out. By then all of my momentum was gone and I’ve never quite gotten it back. Now I’m working on a series and trying to pick up the pace, knock on wood.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
One of my professors in college told me to always write 1,000 words a day, no matter what. I think that the key is to just really stick with whatever you’re trying to do and don’t give up. It has been said that the only failure is in giving up. Maybe you haven’t achieved the success you are after yet, but if you haven’t given up then you haven’t failed either.

What are you reading now?
I just finished “Beautiful Ruins” by Jess Walter, which I really enjoyed. It is a romantic story set in Italy about a young American movie actress and all of the drama that surrounds an unfortunate affair she’s had with a famous actor (Richard Burton).

What’s next for you as a writer?
After I finish my latest novel, “Bachelor Number Five,” I plan to write “Bachelor Number Nine” and then “Bachelor of Arts.” I’m hoping to have all three done this 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?
Definitely “A Moveable Feast,” to remind myself of the idyllic life writing in European cafes. Probably “Moby Dick” for some high seas adventure. And maybe “Robinson Crusoe” for something to relate to sitting on a desert island!

Author Websites and Profiles
Kenneth Rosenberg Website
Kenneth Rosenberg Amazon Profile

Kenneth Rosenberg’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a writer and daily blogger of, Living La Vida Lymphoma. I have written four books.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is my paranormal memoir entitled, The House on Pancake Hill. Growing up in an extremely haunted house was the basis for me finally telling my story.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I wake up between 3-5 a.m. every day, put on the tea kettle, light some nag champa incense and some candles and I blog and write until I hit my maximum output for the day. I’ve always been a morning person and it is when I am at my creative best!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
There are too many to name, however, I gravitate towards inspirational writers such as Dr. Wayne Dyer, Maya Angelou, Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson…

What are you working on now?
I am embarking on a maiden voyage into FICTION! First time ever and I am in love with the early stages of character development, settings, dialogue….so excited!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have my Facebook pages (Author, Jodi Sykes & The House on Pancake Hill), I tweet, I promote on other author / book sites, and I have my two blogs!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I am approached by so many people who “wish” they had time to write….my advice is, stop wishing and start WRITING!!! If you work a 9-5, get up an hour earlier (or go to be an hour later!). Set up “Me Time” and start slow…10-15 minutes will get you on the path, and once your writing becomes a “habit,” you’ll find ways to add more time in throughout your day! (lunch breaks, in the bathtub…)

Also, keep a notebook in your purse, nightstand, car, briefcase. Whenever you hear some rich dialogue, can start some character descriptions, add setting ideas, you are well on your way to gathering what you will need for your current or future projects!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t listen to naysayers…you do whatever it takes to follow your dreams!

What are you reading now?
The Weird Sisters

What’s next for you as a writer?
Dabbling with a fictional project!

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?
Anything by Emerson, Thoreau, or any Hay House authors.

Author Websites and Profiles
Jodi Sykes Website

Jodi Sykes’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 Brit living in the Algarve, Portugal, having lived all over Europe since 2002. I spent my working life in Aviation as pilot, designer and safety regulator. I took early retirement a couple of years ago to concentrate on writing but spend the rest of my time running my small guesthouse Casa Luiz (www.casaluiz.com) in Carvoeiro. I’ve written five novels, all in different genres. The first was ‘Miracle in Carvoeiro’ a light tale of expats in a conservative Portuguese village. This was followed by its sequel, ‘The Eye of Sayf-Udeen’ a Da Vinci Code-genre treasure hunt. Then a complete change with ‘Artcore’, a dark serial killer story, set in Amsterdam’s gay world. Then came a literary work, ‘The Zarathustra Principle’, set in Germany in 1925 which marries Nietzsche and Nazism in the context of a coming of age story of a Jewish student. Finally comes Flight Into Darkness….

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Flight Into Darkness. I spent the last few years heading up the safety regulation of light aircraft for the new European Aviation Safety Agency. This work inspired me to write a story based on the idea of the world’s safest aircraft that mysteriously crashes. The investigation starts out like any other but the deeper James Hayward digs, the more he discovers until he finds himself pitted against a new kind of middle-eastern terrorist with a new political agenda; a United States of the Middle East. It’s set in a post Bin Laden Middle East and ends in Sicily. You really need to read it!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. If I have an idea, I sit down and write. I often throw 50 pages onto paper as a brain dump before doing an assessment; is it worth continuing with? Mostly the answer is no! I annoy friends and family to get their views but basically do what I want then leave it to my editor, the wonderful Debi Alper, to tell me what works and what doesn’t. I can write very fast and do the research whilst I’m writing because it’s too easy to put off the writing to do the resesarch and procrastination doesn’t write books. When I’m enthused, I can write ten pages a day; around 3000 words.

I find that boredom is a great motivator! But hunger is better.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I try not to be influenced by other writers but admire Ian McEwan very much. The writers I really like are those who I know I can never emulate! I suppose my overall style is a bit Ken Follett although I can be both lighter and more literary when I’m in the mood. I love historical fiction but do not write it because it needs too much research. C J Sansome is very good.

What are you working on now?
I like the idea of retelling early biblical stories, in particular Enoch and Noah. The idea is for the retelling to be rational, ie, no God, as such. I’m also interested in the ‘new age’ ideas of Rudolf Steiner which have influenced Louise Hay and others. However, every time I try to put these ideas together, I find I’m boring myself.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Book promotion is new to me but I’ve found that Amazon KDP Countdown Promotions are good because it gives you something to tweet about. Twitter is massively useful. Then there are the Goodreads review groups where you get 16 writers to download each other’s books then leave reviews on at least 4. You get downloads and reviews all in one fell swoop. I maintain an active blog, connected to Twitter and Facebook and have found that all of these activities together have a really noticeable affect on downloads. When you self publish, you have to do it all yourself but you’re not alone!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write for the pleasure of it, then try to get some enjoyment from the promotion. Promotion is harder work than writing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Elmore Leonard (I think): ‘If it reads like writing, I rewrite it.’

What are you reading now?
One of the books from the Goodreads review group list: ‘Irrefutable Proof’ by Abby Vandriver. Next is F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned’ and ‘Weimar Vibes’ by Phil Rowan.

What’s next for you as a writer?
The next great idea. I’m still waiting but whilst I wait, I promote! My muse…where are you?

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?
This list would be different every week but this week:

Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

The Road to London – Ade Bulla

War and Peace – Tolstoy

Crime and Punishment – Dostoyevsky

Author Websites and Profiles
Roger Hardy Website
Roger Hardy Amazon Profile

Roger Hardy’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
In my long and checkered career, I have had more publishers than currently exist in New York today, among them Dorchester, Penguin, Warner Books, St. Martin’s Press, Harlequin and Tor-Forge. Mostly I have written historical romances–32 to date. In addition, I’ve done romantic suspense and political thrillers (the latter under a pseudonym Alexa Hunt). All in all, I’ve had 35 books published by major presses in New York.

Then the most exciting part of my publishing career began three years ago, when I started putting up my backlist novels on Amazon, Nook, Apple and Kobo. Now I am writing original, never before published e-books, beginning with books two and three of my House of Dreams Trilogy, LOVING LUCIFER AT MIDNIGHT and LOVING LIES AT MIDNIGHT. These and several other of my series, are set in Regency England, although my first love has always been the American West.

After receiving my master’s degree in history from the University of Missouri, I taught history at a large Northeast university until they abolished the requirement that students take intro history courses for bachelor’s degrees. No requirements, no adjunct faculty. Alas. I moved over to the university’s English department where I taught freshman composition. After two years of grading remedial themes, I bottomed out. Let me tell you, readers, there are a finite number of times a teacher can explain to a college student what a verb is before she’s done for.

Since I’d always loved reading romance novels, I decided to try writing a historical myself. The result was my first book, GOLDEN LADY, published by Warner Books in 1986. Writing stories is like eating popcorn…once you start, you just can’t seem to stop.

I have been married to Jim Henke, a retired university English professor, forever and we have a son who works in telecommunications. We live in St. Louis in a big cedar house that we share with two very spoiled tomcats, Pewter and Sooty. Sooty’s claim to fame is killing nearly 100 moles in 2013. Pewter’s is utter indolence, 2008-2014.

I have won seven awards from ROMANTIC TIMES MAGAZINE, three from AFFAIRE DE COEUR MAGAZINE, twice been a finalist for Romance Writer’s of America’s RITA, won a BOOKRAK bestseller award and have been recognized as one of the “Pioneers of the Genre” at the 2013 RT Convention. I have also been on USA TODAY’s bestseller list.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is a Regency romance, LOVING LIES AT MIDNIGHT, last of a trilogy. All three of these novels involve London’s most infamous bordello, the fabled House of Dreams where rich English noblemen can act out their fantasies. In the first book, LOVE LESSONS AT MIDNIGHT, an earl asks for “lessons” which will enable him to please the woman he intends to marry. In LOVING LUCIFER AT MIDNIGHT, an English spy against Napoleon blackmails a beautiful French aristocrat into helping him uncover a dangerous plot. In both of these books, a young woman had a small “walk-on” part. Lorna didn’t even have a name at first. She was just another girl the bordello owner rescued from the streets, offering shelter education with the chance for a better life. Only those who chose to do so became courtesans. Lorna was destined for a respectable marriage. That was as much as I had figured out in the first two novels. But she kept flitting around the back of my mind until I decided she deserved her own story. After she was established as the adopted niece of a wealthy cit, she met a most unsuitable man–the heir of a duke, a rakish, charming rogue who utterly captured her heart. But what if she captured his heart, too? Dare she tell him about her lowly birth or upbringing in a bordello? If she did not, what would happen when the truth came out? The more I worked on this idea, the better I liked it. Geoff and Lorna’s courtship is witty and warm. I hope readers will take both of these winsome young people to their hearts.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I wrote my first 25 novels in longhand on looseleaf paper with a ballpoint pen. My best friend Carol Reynard transferred my illegible scrawl into typewritten manuscripts, then onto computer pages. Finally around the turn of the millenium, I learned how to use one of those “devil machines” myself. Now I write on the computer. But another computer lives on the lower level of our house. At that one, my husband Jim works, helping me with research on the net, editing and polishing my work. We go back and forth so much that there are often disagreements, okay, yelling matches as we hash out plot and characterization.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Rosemary Rogers’ SWEET, SAVAGE LOVE hooked me on the historical romance genre way back in the late 1970’s. The dense historical richness and dark, mysterious hero made me eager to read more. Then I discovered Roberta Gellis’s wonderous Medieval romances, Lisa Gregory’s RAINBOW SEASON, the list goes on and on. I could name dozens of wonderful authors whose work inspired me want to write.

What are you working on now?
After a long series of attempts, I finally got the rights to my first romantic suspense novel back from Penguin. BOUQUET is set in the California wine country and features a mysterious drifter who comes to work at a Napa vineyard, where he and the owner’s daughter spend a summer falling in love. But someone is trying to kill Adam and Marti wonders why he won’t tell her about his past. When he suddenly vanishes, she is uncertain if he deserted her or if something more sinister happened.

When this book was published, I wrote a sequel, which was never published. Now I am rewriting that book, working title CALIFORNIA HEAT. It is a tale involving a cynical San Francisco homicide detective and a sensitive New Orleans artist. She’s the cop, he’s the artist. Gray witnesses a murder while having a one-man show in San Francisco. Linda is assigned to the case. When he draws an exact likeness of the killer (whose face he saw beneath a street light), they find that the man is a war hero, self-made millionaire and personal friend of the police comissioner. He also has an air-tight alibi. But Linda believes Gray when he insists Cleary is the killer. A game of cat and mouse ensues with an evil and deranged man. The reader knows Cleary is the killer, but why has he done what he’s done? That is what Linda and Gray must figure out if they are to survive.

I hope to have these e-books up for sale in late spring. In many ways, I think CALIFORNIA HEAT (or whatever the title ends up being) is the best I’ve ever written. I can’t wait to see how readers react!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve never been much of a promoter since coming to the e-book business, simply because I was overwhelmed learning the ropes of having my backlist books scanned, formatted and going through the arduous (for a troglodyte like me) process of registering to sell my books and then to upload them on the various platforms. Now my husband Jim has begun researching all the wonderful sites such as Awesomegang.com. This is my first attempt to reach out to readers in this medium.

My website and cover designer, Kim Killion, has set up a great site for me, on which I feature each new book as it is released, an excerpt from the book, an email site for readers to contact me, even a page where I post original recipes for my favorite dishes. Jim writes a humorous (but curmudgeonly) newsletter every quarter or so, telling about the crazy goings on at the Henke asylum. I have a Face Book author’s page and post as often as time permits on FB. Beyond that, I’m still in the process of learning the best ways to reach readers.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Now that you can publish your own work on Amazon, Nook, Kobo and Apple, the sky’s the limit! But I would offer a few caveats: find (hire if need be) a good copyeditor. You don’t want to put out a book filled with mistakes. Also, if possible, it is best to establish credibility by getting some work published traditionally in New York. Either way, write the book of your heart. Good luck!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“What goes around, comes around.” Be kind to other authors and to readers. Just because the Internet can be anonymous should not give anyone license to be snarky to others.

What are you reading now?
EXTRAORDINARY POWERS by Joseph Finder. It’s a nifty CIA thriller with a fascinating premise about ESP.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have always wanted to alternate writing historicals with suspense. Having just finished a historical romance trilogy, I am moving on to publish BOUQUET and its sequel. After that, I’ll complete HEARTSTOPPER, a suspense book set in Miami. Then, for sure I’ll write another Western historical romance, ALL THE CAPTAIN’s WOMEN. I love the freedom to write what I want and move around so, hopefully, I stay fresh in 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?
A Michael Connolly mystey featureing Harry Bosch, a Lisa Gregory romance, a political thriller by Daniel Silva featuring Gabriel Alon, and, of course, the Bible.

Author Websites and Profiles
Shirl Henke Website
Shirl Henke Amazon Profile

Shirl Henke’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have been writing since 2005. My first book was a collection of poetry entitled ‘Ybo’ and Other Lies’. It is now out in a new edition (I don’t recall how many editions it has had, Amazon say 13, I’ll go with that). I have also published a grammar book, a study on Dante and Coleridge, a collection of short stories and, most recently, my baby, ‘The Road to London’, a novel.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘The Road to London’, my novel, came to me in the strangest possible way: while dancing in a gay club in London, which I have now revealed to be Fitladz, where I am doing the first book signing. I used to go there every Friday; I was the first in and the last to leave. It was, and still is, the temple of ‘scally’ culture in London, possibly the world. Anyway, I always went with my best friend, my ‘sister’ as I used to call him, Stephane, to whom the novel is dedicated, and, suddenly, the first words of ‘The Road to London’ simply came to me. The whole novel wrote itself through me in that club, a chapter a night. I would then rush home and write it up.

Why did it come to me? It was a special time in my life, maybe one of the happiest, but also most painful periods in my existence. I was desperately in love, like I’d never been before (maybe with one exception) or have been since. It was a time when suddenly everything seemed to make sense: my whole life seemed to have a meaning, basically, I believed I had been put in this world to be with this guy I loved. It’s strange how love changes the perception you have of the whole world. ‘The Road to London’ is about that: how pain, suffering, bullying, life and even death make sense on a personal, but also cosmic level, if we see our life as a gift of love whose meaning is to meet one’s soul-mate and share love with him or her.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I do not write on command; I do not decide to write. Words tend to come to me, often at night, sometimes even during dreams (that’s why ‘The Road to London’ takes place partly in this world, partly in the world of dreams, and partly even in the after world, or, as I’d like to say, in our metaphysical dimension). That had always happened with poetry, but having short moments of elation when a poem comes to you is not the same as knowing for a long time that the Muse has decided to present you with a novel, and will be visiting you regularly and for many hours each time. When I write, I am in a trance. I don’t plan, I don’t organise, yet the structure of my work becomes clear to me, even if it is sometimes quite complex, while I am writing. I still write with a fountain pen, by the way, I don’t type. I find that writing by pen gives me a more visceral relationship with the words on the page. When I write, I hear the echoes of other writers in my head too: ‘The Road to London’ has many different voices from literature in it; I believe some readers are now looking for ‘hidden quotations’: well, they have hundreds to find out. But they are not hidden quotations, they are just the texts and authors who have influenced the texts I write who simply want to have their say. Having said this, you can read ‘The Road to London’ even if you don’t know these writers or you can’t spot their words. ‘The Road to London’ is easy to read: it has many layers of meaning, but it’s very reader-friendly.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have read quite a lot, being an academic myself, and I would say that almost every book I read influences me. I’m not a writer, I’m a sponge, or a catalyst, Eliot would say. However, the deepest influence on ‘The Road to London’ is certainly ‘Wuthering Heights’. When I started it, the first voice that came to me was that of my great idol, and the King of Literature, James Joyce. I’ve always revered his genius, yet I noticed that the words that came to me had a feminine touch to them: they were in fact, Molly Bloom’s last words in ‘Ulysses’, ‘Yes, I will yes.’ I felt them coming with a feminine voice, so, although I feared I was about to write a sort of sequel to Joyce’s colossal novel, and I do mean it when I use the phrase ‘I feared’, slowly but steadily, like speaking through a veil, two other voices came to me: Virginia Woolf’s and Emily Bronte’s; I could hear the timbre of their voices, literally. Virginia Wolf started almost singing, I didn’t understand why at first, but once ‘The Road to London’ was finished I realised that she knows I am synaesthetic, and I see colours and shapes when I hear sounds, so, she took the lead in the rhythm and colours of ‘The Road to London’. Some readers have pointed out that there are paintings in the novel, and in fact there are, and every chapter has a specific palette. An art critic has told me on Goodreads that an Art magazine is doing a feature on how ‘The Road to London’ translates paintings into words. I owe that to the Queen of Literature, Virginia Woolf. Emile Bronte was whispering to me, with a very mellow and fluid voice; her words were not clear at the beginning, but grew with the novel, becoming louder and louder: ‘Stop looking at the mind, look at the soul…’ Eureka! Yes, of course, whatever subgenres we like to categorise novels into nowadays, there are two main genres in novels: realism and the gothic tradition, the former finalised with brittle and almost crystalline perfection by the Mother of the novel, Jane Austen, the second by the great rebel and ‘naughty’ Princess of Letters Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Yet, Emily Bronte has started a third great tradition, which Literature has not honoured: the spiritual novel. Certainly Virginia Woolf was influenced by this tradition (in her time consisting of only one author), yet hers was the time of psychology and psychiatry, and let’s be honest, Freud was not a great supporter of the idea of the soul (even if I see more Jung than Freud in Woolf), and his influence in those times was huge. When one reads ‘Wuthering Heights’ one can see the other side of the gothic tradition: we do not feel that the supernatural is alien to the human being, but its own essence: Katherine and Heathcliff share the same soul, they are one cosmic entity, despite having two different bodies. The gothic shows us the supernatural as opposed to the human, the spiritual novel says. ‘No. Humans are supernatural, and what we are fighting against is not the metaphysical, the supernatural, but our physical existence, its limitations, which stop us from being who we really are.’ This is the discourse that ‘The Road to London’ has reignited: the cover shows a picture of what is basically my face, yet transparent, and one can see the stars and the sky through it (if you look carefully, you can see the aura around the face). ‘The Road to London’ is, in fact, the story of a boy whose physical existence is his problem: he was born in a homophobic country, in a grey city, yet he becomes gay, and his dreams become part of his reality. He then takes to drugs, which we should not condone, but to the boy, they offer a vision into a world that is not the grey and soulless dimension of his reality. He then starts hearing letters he himself has written in a gay club in his future in London, all addressed to his great love, My Dear. These letters clearly do not exist, but they reflect the way ‘The Road to London’ was born, and also give the boy not only an insight into a possible future where he can be himself, both sexually and psychologically, but also the opportunity to ‘write his own future.’ The letters are very important in the novel: they are where the free will of the boy plays a crucial role in his life. The theme of flight, which may lead him into a world, represented by London, where he can be himself, has also links to a spiritual flight, a flight into the after world, which some readers have seen in relation to the dedication.

What are you working on now?
Well, I have a few projects going… I’ve gone back to my roots as a poet, and working on a collection of poems inspired by Art, some are already available, ‘Shadow Whisper’ for example. I am also about to publish a simple guide to the Romantic Poets, and I’m writing quirky short stories. Of course, deep beneath, there is my great dream of writing an epic poem.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think the best method of promoting a book starts when one puts pen to paper. However, my favourite method is to let readers discuss them freely: they see many things in my books, some of them are of course, their own experience and creative perspective of them. But the books belong to them. There are some very interesting discussions on Goodreads: it looks like readers have had very different experiences of ‘The Road to London’: some like the fact that it deals with sex and fetish, others like the fact that it has a poetic style at times, others are talking about how it relates to Art or Music. My favourite comments are by those readers who say that ‘The Road to London’ has been a life-changing experience, lots of the readers seem to go back and re-read it, often soon after the first read. It is in many Goodreads ‘lists’ or charts voted by readers, and one that has really pleased me, though all do, is that readers have voted it number 20 in ‘books that are good enough to read twice’, that for me, shows that many readers have loved it quite intensely.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be courageous; write something new. I mean, we know that it’s easier to ‘make it’ if you write a book that is similar to a best-selling book; but that’s like, let’s say, in music: anyone can write a cheesy pop song and be instantly recognised, make a few bob, then forgotten as soon as the next cheesy pop comes along. But who do we remember? Those artists who are in it for long run, those who dare to change, to invent new forms, new styles. You need to ask yourself why you are a writer; if the answer is to make money, then, be my guest, but if you really want to contribute to Literature, then be original.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I must say, this will sound cryptic, and it was to me at the time. Well, when I was a young lad, I of course, had a massive crush, well, let’s be honest, that was love, big time, on a school mate. It ended in tragedy, of course. I didn’t even understand that was love, I just thought the world had changed, I thought I was no longer myself. After a week of crying my eyes out, I went back to school; my Latin Teacher at the time stopped me on the stairs, I remember he was carrying an umbrella, yet is was June and in Italy, and he said, ‘There are things you cannot understand now, but one day you will.’ I found it very odd, very out of place given the situation. Only many years later his words came back to me and they made sense: don’t try to understand the whole of the universe, Fate moves in mysterious way, and his ways only become clear once all the intended consequences of a painful moment have come into being. I am not saying that the future is inscrutable, but that if we try to see it, it simply moves further and further in the distance.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading ‘Seelie’ by Sarah Luddington. I’ve just started it. I loved her Lancelot series as it always played with ambiguity, especially sexual ambiguity, and I love the Middle Ages and historical novels. Now she has written a gay urban romance, ‘Seelie’, I think this is a courageous move, going back to what I was saying before. I also re-read many of the classics on a regular basis; Dante is a daily read for me, in fact, I have the best edition of ‘La Commedia’ (in Italian) always on my bedside; I also have a copy of the very first edition of Carey’s translation of ‘Inferno’ on my bedside, and always Milton’s work and a few others.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I don’t know. I don’t decide. I hope Calliope will call upon me again to write. Certainly, I am not one who writes sequels. I know for sure though, that if she does, it will be to write something original and new yet again. What? I do not know; I am not trying to read the future, I’ll let the future speak to me.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Hard choice, but certainly ‘The Odyssey, ‘Dante’s ‘Commedia’ ‘Paradise Lost’ and ‘Ulysses’.. May I break the rules and add ‘Hamlet’, ‘Mrs Dalloway’ and ‘The Aeneid’? Just to remind me of the major steps towards becoming a human being…

Author Websites and Profiles
Adriano Bulla Website
Adriano Bulla Amazon Profile

Adriano Bulla’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m thirty years of age, and I live in Cheshire in the U.K. I have written many short stories over the years but at the time I never committed myself to them but it all changed when I started writing the Toby Ripwood Series. Toby Ripwood in The Dark Sphere Enigma took me over three years to complete, probably longer due to my mild dyslexia but I had support from my partner. It was a tremendous struggle but I pushed through to complete it. It is my first book I have written with completion and I am now currently working on the next instalment for the series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Toby Ripwood came to my mind as I had a bus ride home in North Wales where I used to live in the U.K, but at the time I did not think anything more of it, until years later I thought to myself that this could actually work as a young adult fantasy fiction story.

Many other aspects of my life, personal and made up inspired me, my dreams and nightmares play a big role in them and my brothers also inspired me with their amazing writing skills.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Besides staying up to 3:30am in the morning writing, I can’t think of any.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I suppose many stories have influenced me from the iconic Harry Potter to Dr Who. Both have amazing worlds full of details and characters. There isn’t any in particular as many books are greater than great.

What are you working on now?
The next instalment for the series. Toby Ripwood. The story will be more fun, intense and more insanely surprising.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook yet it is not always helpful, any websites that give authors the support needed free or paid.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just keep going no matter what, writing for me is a giant struggle at times with my dyslexia so no matter who you are or what problems you have anyone can achieve writing a story if they stick to it and let nothing get in their way, plus every writer is always learning new things. It’s a long long learning process.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Never give up on your dreams no matter how little they are.

What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading Ben Mears – The Haunting of Tyler May. It takes me a while to finish reading a book being a writer and all.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Hopefully trying to get published professionally if not I’ll continue to do what I am currently doing.

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?
Percy Jackson and Harry Potter series. I love fantasy, horror and mayhem!

Author Websites and Profiles
Paul Roberts Website
Paul Roberts Amazon Profile
Paul Roberts Author Profile on Smashwords

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

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
From the moment I read Gone With the Wind at the age of twelve, I was hooked on romance. So much so, that I immediately set out to write (along with thousands of other love-struck young girls, I’m sure), what I hoped would be “the great American novel.” Obviously my dreams of grandeur didn’t go anywhere (grin), but I did write 150 single-spaced pages of a story that is actually the basis for my debut novel, A Passion Most Pure. Hard to believe that almost forty years passed before God breathed new life into that early attempt and inspired me to finish my childhood novel of passion—only this time the “passion” would be for Him!

Since I penned my debut novel, A Passion Most Pure, which won American Christian Fiction Writers 2009 Debut Book of the Year, I’ve written ten more books for a total of eleven. My tagline is “Passion with a Purpose,” which means my books are a tad more passionate than the majority of fiction in the Christian market today, both romantically and spiritually. Because boy meets girl is fine, certainly, but when boy meets girl and faith, it creates a romance that transcends to another dimension where romantic passion and spiritual passion merge, creating a 3-D love story: the hero, the heroine, and the God that brings them together.

I invite you to check out my website where you can read my favorite romantic and spiritual excerpts from each of my books plus scads of interview questions that will give you an idea of who I am and why I write the way that I do. Here’s the link and thanks for stopping by! http://www.julielessman.com/

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
That would be Dare to Love Again, which is book 2 in the “Heart of San Francisco” series that launched last April with book 1, Love at Any Cost. The series itself is kind of a poor-man, rich-man scenario among three cousins during the Irish-political landscape of 1902 San Francisco. Think Little Women meets Dynasty. ☺ And for those too young to remember the TV show Dynasty, think family wealth and poverty in a political setting.

This series is a bit of a departure for me because it’s a little lighter and I hope a little more fun than the angst and high drama of my two prior series. And, without question, Dare to Love Again is the lightest, “sweetest” and funniest of all my books so far where spontaneous combustion between the two main characters explodes right off the bat! My spunky, hot-tempered Irish heroine goes head-to-head with my hard-as-nails, Italian police-detective grouch of a hero in the first chapter—or maybe I should say the first round. I have to admit, I had WAY too much fun at the expense of these two in a relationship that goes from fireworks to a flaming romance in the short lick of a fuse.

Here’s the jacket blurb.

She’s a sassy socialite burned by love.

He’s a jaded cop burned by the upper class.

When sparks fly … will love catch fire again?

Spunky Allison McClare is determined to be a fearless, independent woman. But when she takes a notion to explore the wild Barbary Coast, she quickly discovers she’s no match for the unsavory characters that haunt the dark streets.

Detective Nick Barone would rather do almost anything than teach this petite socialite self-defense, but it seems he has little choice. Sparks fly every time the two meet until a grudging friendship develops into something deeper. But is he just a fraud like all the rest of the men Allison’s cared for? Or the one man she can dare to love again?

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Big grin here. Well, I’m quirky and crazy and just a wee bit off center, so I have a number of rituals with my writing such as the must-haves—a constant cup of hazelnut decaf with Half ‘n Half, peppermint tea or cold peach iced tea, lots and LOTS of lip gloss, Kleenex (for the soggy scenes I write), ear plugs if the squirrels or birds get too noisy, pad of paper and pen for quick notes, and a mirror handy for those facial expressions I’m trying to capture.

My biggest ritual, however, is ambiance. My family jokes that I am an “Ambiance Queen” because dim lighting with candles during dinner is a must, as well as a mainstay for my winter writing. During the summer months (basically May through October), I sit outside on my lower deck that runs the length of the house, overlooking a lush, green wooded area that has sunlight dappling through the trees. I have my feet up on this cushy lawn furniture we have at all times (like now!), and a fan gently blowing while I sit with my laptop. In the winter I’m in the hearth room with a crackling fire, all the essentials mentioned above and a picture of my husband on the table beside me for the ultimate inspiration. ☺

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Without question, Margaret Mitchell got it all started for me with her amazing novel, Gone With the Wind. That book instilled a love for romance in me at the age of twelve that I hope carries through into my novels today. And, of course, King Solomon who wrote the “Song of Solomon” in the Bible, which opened my eyes as to just how passionate God’s love is for each of us. As far as craft, the author who had the most influence on me would be Donald Maas and his masterful book, Writing the Breakout Novel.

What are you working on now?
Right now I’m still pretty busy promoting book 2 in the Heart of San Francisco series, Dare to Love Again, which just released in January. Then more promotion to do — first, on my new writer’s workbook Romance-ology 101: Writing Romantic Tension for the Inspirational and Sweet Markets, which I just published in both paperback and ebook. Then my Irish love story, A Light in the Window—winner of the 2013 International Digital Award, the 2013 Readers’ Crown Award, and the 2013 Book Buyers Best Award—now in paperback to accompany the ebook. I have to admit, I just LOVE the video my artist hubby did that stars my daughter, so I hope your readers will check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGKjHddYNeE&feature=youtu.be

Regarding future projects, I’m happy to say I’m going to lay low in 2014 to focus more on God and family and just to enjoy writing unencumbered by contracts and deadlines. I’m really excited to finish a contemporary I started before I got published, about a reformed rebel who’s found God and returns home to her small-town roots after ten years. Although the purpose of her homecoming is to be in her sister’s wedding, she knows deep in her heart that God has led her home to rebuild bridges she burned between an estranged father she defied and a former fiancé she deserted. In a small way, it’s somewhat biographical, so I expect it to be a wee bit therapeutic as well.

Author Websites and Profiles

Julie Lessman Website

Julie Lessman’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am the second youngest of six children, and have always loved being part of a large family! I work as a Veterinary Assistant, and love being able to help animals. My favorite hobby is horseback riding, and I have a horse named Rory (she came with the name, probably not one I would have chosen) I have been writing since my Freshman year at Wisconsin Lutheran College. I have written 8 novels including the two I currently have published, and one I wrote as my undergrad research project. The two I have published are Tracker and Kindred, the first books of the Earthshaker Series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The most recent book I’m working on is Hunter, and it is the third book of my series. I get my inspiration from all over the place. People I know, books I’ve read, tv shows and movies I’ve seen, and sometimes they mix together to make a fun story.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’ve never been able to plan out events in my books. My writing has always been kind of a free-flow thing. Every time I’ve tried to plan, it ends up completely different than I intended it. I also need some kind of background noise to get into writing. When I was in college I listened to a lot of music by Josh Groban. Now I turn on cartoons as background, and that seems to work pretty well.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’d have to say Kay Hooper, for the Noah Bishop Series, influenced parts. I have also been writing in the first person which was influenced mostly by Rob Thurman and Jim Butcher. Love all of them!

What are you working on now?
I am working on editing Hunter: Earthshaker Series book 3, and also working on marketing Tracker and Kindred, the two I already have published.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have used quite a few Facebook Groups, Google+, just joined Twitter, and I have a blog and a Facebook page. My books haven’t been out very long, so it’s hard to say what works the best, but I’m going to do kind of a cop out and say that having a wide variety of areas to promote your work is the best. Any one way isn’t going to do it on it’s own.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be persistent. You aren’t going to be a best seller overnight, you need to work at it. And enjoy the little things- a ‘like’ on your page, a genuine interest in your novel, etc. Don’t get dragged down by a lack of immediate results.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Have a marketing plan. Start marketing your book before it is available, so people are looking forward to it when it comes out. I didn’t do that for Tracker, because when I started I had no idea what I was doing, but I did a little for Kindred, and I plan on doing quite a bit for Hunter and any other future books.

What are you reading now?
I am currently reading Insurgent. I just finished reading Divergent. Very interesting story!

What’s next for you as a writer?
More writing. And editing. Always. It’s important to keep moving forward. Yes, I need to keep working on marketing the first books, but I need to also continue the series and get other projects rolling.

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, Madhouse (by Rob Thurman), The Bourne Identity (by Robert Ludlum), and The Hades Factor (by Robert Ludlum).

It is really hard to say for sure. On any given day my choices could be different!

Author Websites and Profiles
Adrianne Lemke Website
Adrianne Lemke Amazon Profile

Adrianne Lemke’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m the author of the ‘Adventures of Eric and Ursula’. Over the last 18 years, I have lived near Dracula’s castle in Transylvania, war-torn Sri Lanka and above the Hadron Collider in Geneva. Currently, I live in Prague, not far from a space rocket covered in giant babies.

The idea for ‘The Adventures of Eric and Ursula’ came to me while hiking in the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia and is my first series of novels. I have written two of them so far.

For an older audience, I wrote the films ‘Seagulls’ which was shown at the Brighton Film Festival and ‘your baby disappeared’ which premiered in Prague in 2011. When I am not writing I enjoy spending time with my family, cycling, watching movies, listening to comedy and being creative.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called ‘Survival Instinct’. I wanted to create superheroes and characters which were believable and would appeal to young adults. To do this, I was inspired to create Eric and Ursula, who are eleven years old. Unlike other superheroes, they don’t wear their underwear on top of their trousers.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I wrote my first two novels using a trusty fountain pen which broke as soon as the second novel was finished. Maybe one day the handwritten copies will be in a museum.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I enjoy the ‘Artemis Fowl’ books by Eoin Colfer. He has created a whole world which is both fantastical and fun. Also ‘Holes’ by Louis Sacher because it is just a brilliant story.

What are you working on now?
I am working on the third novel in ‘The Adventures of Eric and Ursula’ series. It is going really well and I think it is the best of the series so far. The provisional title is ‘Fall Back’ but this may change.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Personally, I think the best method of promoting is to try something new each week and don’t worry if it fails. For my first book, I tried sending a mock ransom note to TV and radio stations. A DJ in Switzerland loved it but the BBC in the UK thought it was genuine. Oops! Also make sure that you mix promoting with writing. If you do too much of one, the other will suffer.

The best website for promoting your books is your own. So, make sure links to where your book can be bought/downloaded appear on every page.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t expect to be an overnight success. Nobody knows you, nobody has heard of your books and you are currently in last place. Work hard and, with a bit of luck, you’ll end up near the front. Keep a track of your successes, no matter how small, as they will keep you motivated.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“If you want something hard enough, you’ll have to work hard for it,” my grandmother

What are you reading now?
‘The Passport’ by Herta Muller.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I will finish the four books in ‘The Adventures of Eric and Ursula’ and then possibly try something new. I was thinking about a non-fiction book about peoples’ dreams (as in what they want to achieve in 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?
‘Suite Francaise’ by Irene Nemirovsky because it is a beautifully written book.

‘Blackberry Wine’ by Joanne Harris. I read it ten years ago and keep saying to myself that I will read it again.

‘The Essential Chomsky’ by Noam Chomsky so my brain does not turn to mush.

‘Robinson Crusoe’ by Daniel Defoe. I may pick up some handy hints.

Author Websites and Profiles
A.D. Winch Website
A.D. Winch Amazon Profile
A.D. Winch Author Profile on Smashwords

A.D. Winch’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Although this is my first “officially published for a viewing audience” book, I have been writing in various capacities all my life.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“…Alone (again) on my boat with an enormous amount of cocaine, I fully intended to blow my

heart to smithereens. Cutting fat lines sure to end my misery, an unrelenting voice in my head

urgently insisted I “write this down!”. Finally giving in, I found a pen and began. My hand would not

stop writing. What spilled out onto that paper astounded me so that I threw the cocaine overboard.

Alive and 20 years later, those very words begin Chapter 1 in my book “Dark to

Light…”.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
20 years ago, in the deepest throes of my addiction, I would stay isolated out in my shop, drunk, stoned and talking to the spiders, writing. Writing and writing. It was my only release. Definitely an unusual writing habit!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love obscure little inspirational books that I sometimes find by accident or a friend might pass them on. For the most part, I like stories about good guys kicking bad guys asses.

What are you working on now?
Coming Up: The true story of a young girls life affected by verbal and emotional abuse, neglect and abandonment issues from birth to the age of 16 when she finally found trust and began to blossom into a loving, caring, fearless, courageous young woman. The story is without end, maybe in 5 years we’ll catch up with a 21 year old and see how she’s grown.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
LinkedIn is great to connect with like minded professionals, clients and groups.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do the opposite of what your mind tells you and go exactly where your heart points you.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You’ve got to break a few eggs to build a battleship.

What are you reading now?
Michener’s, ‘Alaska’.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Researching a book about a young girls life affected by verbal and emotional abuse, neglect and abandonment issues from birth to the age of 16 when she finally found trust and began to blossom into a loving, caring, fearless, courageous young woman. The story is without end, maybe in 5 years we’ll catch up with a 21 year old and see how she’s grown.

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?
Stowaways For Dummies

Mad Magazine

1,000 page blank journal

Author Websites and Profiles
Dean Ingram Website
Dean Ingram Amazon Profile

Dean Ingram’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in Oregon with my husband and four children. I work full time for a tech company so I have my hands full! But I love to write. More than love it, it is my obsession. I have writing apps on all my devices so while I might not have time to write in the traditional sense I can write a chapter on my phone while I am waiting for a sporting event to start.

I have 3 books available on Amazon (two are under the name Melissa Jones) and many others either completed or in progress.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Morning After. The title was inspired by the name of the coffee shop in the book. This book is my first foray into Contemporary Romance. My previous works were Historicals. I really enjoyed writing it. I fell in love with the characters and cheered for them!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Besides writing on the touch screen of an iPhone? No. I write all the time in my head. I am always thinking about characters and scenes. I write on my phone just so I don’t forget the ‘great idea’ I had.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh so many great authors! I am an avid reader and often get sucked into a series by a particular author because I want to see where the characters go. I don’t think they influence my writing because my writer’s voice is something that I’ve cultivated since I was a teenager. I can rember at that time trying to describe things the way another author did and it just didn’t work for me.

What are you working on now?
I am always working on about 8 different things!

I have a series that is historical romance that is currently being edited. It follows a group of friends and subsequently their children. It is the Randal Family Saga

Of course I am working on the next two books in the Reynolds Security Series. Jace’s story and Zoe’s story.

I am also working on a new series called the Cain Brothers. About 6 brothers and the women they love.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am still looking for the best method!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
After you write, take a break and then read it. If you are an avid reader and you like what you write it is probably good. Also, don’t read the reviews and don’t take them personally. Some people are mean just for the sake of being mean!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
After my first bad review I was kind of bummed and my teenage son put his arm around me and said “Mom, haters gotta hate.” It was funny because he never talks that way but it was also true. There are always people out there who insult just to make themselves feel better. So now I choose not to read the reviews.

What are you reading now?
I have been hunkered down in writing mode for many months so I have fallen behind on a couple series. I just caught up on the Scangards Vampire series by Tina Folsom and the KGI series by Maya Banks. I still have to catch up on Rough Riders by Loreli James. Mostly I have been looking for and reading books by other Indy authors I follow on Twitter or FB. I want to read the real story not the publisher ‘dumbed down’ version. I am tired of the cookie cutter heroes!

What’s next for you as a writer?
To write of course. Knocked Out, the sequel to Morning after is going live soon and I am still finishing the next book in that series.

I will never stop writing. I don’t think it’s physically possible at this point!

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I would bring my ereader. Then I could have my whole collection!!

Author Websites and Profiles
Melissa Hale – Jones Website
Melissa Hale – Jones Amazon Profile
Melissa Hale – Jones Author Profile on Smashwords

Melissa Hale – Jones’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m originally from the Portland, Maine area and lived and worked there for years before moving to Southwest Florida. My first book, Jack Canon’s American Destiny: He’s All In, is a Presidential Thriller, or some might say White House Mystery Thriller, packed with action and adventure. I just completed the sequel to Jack Canon’s American Destiny – which is titled Jack Canon’s Women of the House: Love, Lust and Loyalty (A story of Kindness, Passion and Courage that can’t be separated. It’s has all of the same components of the first but leans toward a Presidential Romance, or White House Romance Thriller. The sequel is just as action packed, but with a bit more spice than the first, some would say it’s very sensual. Anyway both are available on Amazon now.

My next project is a Supernatural Romance Thriller, it involves an angel, Gabby, short for Gabriella – Basically, a man during a visit to Bar Harbor, Maine encounters a beautiful angel named Gabby; quite accidentally, he is told – she wasn’t supposed to make him aware of her existence. His purity of spirit, kindness and capacity for love has revealed her to him. Naturally he falls hopelessly in love with the beautiful creature, as humans can not resist angels. The book is titled Gabby, Angel of God, Guardian and Messenger (Keeper of the Peace, Love, Hope, Charity and Faith. She’s quite something and they go on a quick but exciting adventure helping people in trouble. There’s even some horror thrown into the mix. Gabby fits nicely in the Supernatural, Romantic Thriller, Paranormal and Time Travel genres. All three books have adventures and thrills, are fast paces and even some hilarious moments. The Jack Canon series will eventually be about 7 books, book three is tentatively titled, Jack Canon’s Ghost Operative, it’s a Presidential Agent Thriller and deals heavily in the shady dealings of the CIA, Global Terrorism, and the do-what-ever it takes spy mentality. Anyway the attitude of President Jack Canon is to make things right, No matter what! My hope is to have people read the stories and let me know their thoughts. My dream is to write full time and return to beautiful Maine in the Summertime while spending winters in Florida. I probably share that goal with a lot of people.

My Dad and Mom were artists, my father painted and my mother wrote poetry and loved to garden. Most Saturdays we loaded up the 1970 Chevy Impala to trek to a one man show somewhere or other. I took a different track graduating with a business degree; owning and operating an Award Winning Franchise Fitness Center. Currently a professional manager I am living in Florida with my beautiful wife and children, and following my passion.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Gabby, Angel of God, will be released soon. Eighteen years ago while on vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine, in the time it took for my heart to beat three times I witnessed something incredible.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not especially, I love to write early in the morning with a cup of coffee.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Mostly Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle, the Maryanne Williamson, I love books on spirituality

What are you working on now?
Besides finishing touches on Gabby, I am working on two books, the first is Elizabeth, the Queen, the second is the third in the Jack Canon series of Presidential Thrillers, called Jack Canon Ghost Operative.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I like to use Digital Book Source.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t be afraid to cut out parts of the story. Find a good editor.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A quote from Hemingway – the first draft of anything is shit.

What are you reading now?
Currently I am reading my next release Gabby, Angel of God.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Hopefully to be in a position to write and make a living doing it.

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, that would be it.

Author Websites and Profiles
Greg Sandora Website
Greg Sandora Amazon Profile
Greg Sandora Author Profile on Smashwords

Greg Sandora’s Social Media Links
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Facebook Profile
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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I landed on Earth in Stockton, California sometime in the 20th century. Writing and acting were my two passions and I was fortunate to combine both when I was hired as a weekend gunslinger at a western amusement park called Pollardville Ghost Town. I played various characters in the skits we performed on the main street of the town and eventually wrote a few. On the same property was a melodrama/ vaudeville theater called the Palace Showboat. As soon as I hit that stage, I got to do everything I ever wanted to do in show business. It was kind of one stop shopping. I could act, sing, dance, perform stand-up, MC and of course write and direct the shows.

When I finally moved up to Oregon at the turn of the millennium, my writing career took off with my first book, a movie memoir called IN THE DARK: A LIFE AND TIMES IN A MOVIE THEATER. I followed that up with a novel, a road rage saga called RED ASPHALT. Then I took a lighter path with my next two, PLEASE HOLD THUMBS, a true travel tale about my South African journey and a collection of the works I wrote for the Palace Showboat entitled NOW THAT’S FUNNY.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
SONG OF THE CANYON KID is a western comedy romance about a singing cowboy who returns home to face a hanging judge who’s taken over the town and the girl he left behind, now about to marry a known desperado.

This one is a total cartoon. The main character is a singing cowboy. What is the last book you hummed? The characters are intentionally over-the-top and the entire tone is a sweet parody, an homage to the B-movies westerns of yesteryear. And in full disclosure, it’s also a novelization. I based this novel on my comic melodramatic play entitled SONG OF THE LONE PRAIRIE or POEM ON THE RANGE, one of the shows I wrote for the Palace Showboat Theater at Pollardville.

I realize the stigma of a novelization, but I felt creatively stagnated and needed an writing exercise to get myself in gear. Digging through my old writings, I came across his script for LONE PRAIRIE. a melodrama I consider to be the culmination of everything I learned at Pollardville. Adapting it into novel form came fairly easy, fleshing ot the characters and transposing the stage direction into prose. Soon, it took on a life of its own and I was hooked.

Overall I had a blast with this, the most fun I’ve had with a project since I wrote the original back in the ’80’s. SONG OF THE CANYON KID has given me back the joy of writing. By returning to my roots, I found that in order to move forward, sometimes you can go home home again

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really, though I can write just about anywhere which is why I am never without a pen. I wrote a lot of THE CANYON KID in my car. No, not while I was driving.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
From the first time I read it when I was a teenager, J.D. Salinger’s CATCHER IN THE RYE resonates with me to this very day. I aspired to write like Richard Brautigan and Tom Robbins in my early years and their collective influence is in my sub-conscious. Anthony Bourdain’s writing, particularly A COOK’S TOUR and KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, inspired my non-fiction work.

What are you working on now?
I just completed a script for an interactive murder mystery for the Mel O’Drama Theater in Nashville, set to debut in April. Next up is a long gestating novel that I hope to complete by the end of the next millennium.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
When I started as an independent author that was nothing at my disposal except e-mail lists and press releases. Now there is such a wealth of promotional help out there that it is difficult for me to mention just one. Okay, how about starting here? Would that be considered sucking up?

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

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It’s so simple that it’s almost trite, but I think it speaks volumes. “You can’t win if you don’t play.”

What are you reading now?
My tastes are so diverse. I started the year with Mary Roach’s hilarious biology lesson GULP and followed that up immediately with FLIP, Kevin Cook’s biography of Flip Wilson. Then I went right into Dennis Lehane’s crime saga LIVE BY NIGHT. Next up is MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN. Like I said, diverse.

What’s next for you as a writer?
More promotion, more writing. SONG OF THE CANYON KID made me fall back in love with writing again. But I really tested myself with that murder mystery script because I had such a short deadline and I made it with minutes to spare. At this point in my life, I’m ready for another challenge. Bring it on.

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?
Four volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Author Websites and Profiles
Scott Cherney Website
Scott Cherney Amazon Profile

Scott Cherney’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Christina Li, BA, MA, is an author, editor, journalist, wife, and mother of five. She home-schools four of her five children (the oldest is in college!!) and has seen first hand the amazing things that happen when you say ‘yes’ to God.

She and her family live in the NorthWest suburbs of Chicago, serving on the ministerial staff of The Life Church of Des Plaines, IL. Besides writing, Christina LOVES a great cup of coffee, fresh roasted and brewed by her wonderful husband.

She has written and published several books, in various genres, including non-fiction (encouragement), children’s fiction (HomeSchooling), and romantic suspense (fun, inspirational, and sprinkled with humor).

To date she has two books in the ‘A Little Bit of Coffee, Flowers, and Romance’ series with one more coming soon!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Rescuing Vanessa: A Little Bit of Coffee, Flowers, and Romance

This book was a lot of fun to write. What inspired me was my children’s love of sitting love of sitting on the roof of our house in the summer time drawing, reading, or doing school work. The neighbors were a bit concerned and I used the idea of this as a scene for this book. 🙂

Other elements included were pink, striped duct tape. One of my daughters loves this! And, chess. (The kids usually beat me, but we have a lot of fun!) Of course, coffee is an element as well. Because my husband roasts our coffee, I was able to have Vanessa’s grandparents do this as a business and included some real-world knowledge of this. (The smell is utterly fantastic!)

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I seem to write in fits and spurts, partly because I’m organizationally challenged and partly because I have five kids that I homeschool. Anyway, for me it’s best if I outline the whole story first, major scene by major scene. There is ‘wiggle room’, but this is so much easier for me. I can sit down and know exactly where I’m going, but it’s often fun and surprising how my characters get there!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love Jane Austen books as well as Grace Livingston Hill, LaJoyce Martin, and Baroness Orczy. I love the adventure, mystery, and innocence. I can enjoy these books with my children without worry.

What are you working on now?
Currently, I’m working on a third book in the ‘A Little Bit of Coffee, Flowers, and Romance’ series called, ‘A Rose to Love’. This is the story of Jesse (Sam’s brother from Violet Miracle) and Guinevere (a British girl). I love the fact that Guinevere is British (love the accents!) and that she plays the violin (my husband does as well). Jesse has opened up a detective agency with his friend Will and they have to keep Guinevere’s American uncle out of prison. That has been so enlightening researching what a private investigator really does!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon’s KDP select program free days (5 every 90 days) and getting the word out through Author Marketing Club, Awesome Gang, and other awesome sites like this one!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing. Your best advertising and marketing comes from having a backlist. As you put more books (in the same genre) out there, you’ll get more ‘customers also bought these books’ and yours will be included.

Also, take advantage of ‘free days’. These do boost sales and it’s great getting your book out there.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t be afraid to give away your book.

What are you reading now?
Several! I’m in the middle of Charlotte by Karen Aminadra, a continuation of Pride and Prejudice. So, far it’s terrific. Also, I’m reading A Confident Heart by Renee Swope. Wow!

What’s next for you as a writer?
Keep writing. After I’m done with ‘A Rose to Love’, I’m going to finish my motivational book and get that published (finally!) and start outlining for Ivy and Will’s story, finishing up the ‘A Little Bit of Coffee, Flowers, and Romance’ series. Then, I’m thinking I might try my hand at regency fiction. I love that sub-genre.

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?
Bible, some kind of survival book,

Author Websites and Profiles
Christina Li Website
Christina Li Amazon Profile

Christina Li’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
This will be my first book. Not only am I planning a series, but I’m planning multiple series, and am thinking about having cameo’s in between the different series. Personally I thought that would be cool, but we’ll see how others like it.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My first and latest book so far is Prodigies, and it was inspired by actually a plethora of different works across different forms of entertainment to tell you the truth. If you want the main inspiration, I guess you could say it was the end of the Harry Potter series which made me decide that I wanted to write a book of my own.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
None that I’m aware of… If I had to decide I think it would be on how I try to sneak in a reference to other works within my book that inspired the book to begin with. Now that I think about it, I do have a habit of using a simile a lot. I’ve since cut back on that in the second book.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
J.K Rowling most definitely. I read all the books, watched all the movies. At the end of it you kind of go… Well what now? Guess you can say I decided to take that leap that maybe I could do it myself. It may not be anywhere close to where I want to take the series and its characters, but my inspiration really did come for her.

What are you working on now?
The second book to the series. Hopefully this doesn’t take too long because I’m confident that the cliffhanger at the end should have gotten people interested.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Right now… This website. Not even playing. I’m a free author, and sooner or later I would hope to get a contract with an agent. I am however not in a real rush though. I’d like my story to evolve at its own pace rather than be rushed into something the both of us isn’t ready for.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice would be to start writing. That may not be the hardest part, it may not even be the longest part. I’ll tell you one thing though, is that if you don’t do that first step then you won’t really get anywhere. We’ve all have an unlimited world floating around in our heads. The best way to get them out is on paper. Another thing would be that don’t let anybody else’s success overwhelm what you think you can do. Remember, at one point, they were you.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The usual cliche… Never give in, keep trying, etc. They’re all true, but it’s been said before. Maybe I no longer hear these advice because they are pretty much embedded to me already.

What are you reading now?
Scott Lynch’s Red Seas under Red Skies. It’s the second book to the Lies of Locke Lamora series. He is pretty good and if you haven’t heard of him, I suggest you go check him out. I think they were planning on doing a movie not too long ago so it is getting pretty mainstream.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Garner fans, gain attention, do everything I can to make sure my fans will get the service I’m giving. I may be an upstart, but I believe that I can take my ideas farther than I’ve ever seen possible.

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 future books count I would say Goerge R.R Martins last works. I think I would definitely need a conclusion to that.

Jerrell Fowler’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a child of the Midwest and though it’s not considered “cool” to be okay with that, I am. Sure, I’d like to wake up every day to an ocean view, but I’m not interested in the hectic life on the coast. I prefer the slower world of rural America, where it sometimes takes a week to get something done. Maybe that’s why I’m slow at writing books. I’ve managed to publish roughly one a year, bringing the total of books in the Amaranthine vampire series up to six. Of course there’s also a short story collection, and the controversial “list book” 101 Tips for Traveling with a Vampire.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Children of Shadows is the sixth book in the Amaranthine series, and will be available on March 15, 2014. The title was actually inspired by an online title generator who gave me one title with Children in it and another that had “Gate of Shadows”, so I combined the two.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I used to be a very linear writer, but now I’m more “timey-wimey”. I tend to hop around through the book adding, deleting, changing, and writing bits. Sometimes, by the final version, I can’t remember what order events actually ended up in.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
VC Andrews actually had a big impact on me when I was in junior high (the real VC Andrews, not the replacement writer who’s written 90% of the books). I loved the book My Sweet Audrina because there are all these normal things that VC Andrews manages to turn sinister, like the shelves of teddy bears in the “first” Audrina’s room. It’s the paralells and contrasts; all these things which should be sweet, but are evil instead.

What are you working on now?
I have started book 7 of the Amaranthine series (which currently needs a name!) and I’m working on a short story collection, Tales of the Executioners; short stories about members of the Executioner squad – the vampire’s elite police force. The first story, Aine, is available for free on Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Apple, and several other sites.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I haven;t found a magic bullet yet. The best results I had as far as sales was when I ran a paid advertisement on a website (You gotta read, I think it was), but how many of those sales translated into people who actually READ the book and/or went on to buy the rest I don’t know. I do know that free books don’t work the way they used to on Amazon, though I have had success with free short stories on Barnes and Noble. the stories, vampire Morsels, are about secondary characters in the book series, so there is a connection to the novels, but they aren’t a *part* of the novels.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Edit. Then edit again. Then cut out at least 10,000 words and edit five more times. We love words, and we love to splatter a lot of them on a page, but wordy books don’t always make good ones. If I don;t cut out at least 12,000 words from my final book, I don’t feel like I’ve done my work.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don;t give up. It’s pretty much universal.

What are you reading now?
I just finished Escape from Harrizel By CGCoppola. It was an awesome, awesome book! I literally could not put it down, and in fact got behind on my own work because I took a day to read the last half in. It’s the first in a series, so now I have to wait for the second one.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I plan to turn out my little vampire stories until I die, get bored, or everyone else does. Whichever comes first. I’m also working on a comedy vampire story with Jonathan Harvey, the co-author of 101 Tips for Traveling with a Vampire. It’s going to be fun.

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?
Faun and the Woodcutter’s Daughter by B. L. Picard, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien,

Author Websites and Profiles
Joleene Naylor Website
Joleene Naylor Amazon Profile
Joleene Naylor Author Profile on Smashwords

Joleene Naylor’s Social Media Links
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Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My novel White Heat won the Shamus Award for Best Indie P.I. novel from the Private Eye Writers of America. White Heat also won an award in the Mystery-Suspense-Thriller-Adventure category from SouthWest Writers.

I’m a former “script doctor,” and the author of over thirty published short stories, including several award winners, which have appeared in a variety of book length anthologies and magazines. LA Late @ Night, a collection of five of those stories, has just been released.

Publishers Weekly says White Heat is a “…taut crime yarn set in 1992 against the turmoil of the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of the police officers charged with assaulting motorist Rodney King…. the author ably evokes the chaos that erupted after the Rodney King verdict.”

And Woody Haut, journalist and author of Neon Noir (Contemporary American Crime Fiction) and Pulp Culture (Hardboiled Fiction & the Cold War), says “[White Heat] really caught early 90s LA, in all its sordid glory. And had me turning pages late into the night. I think WH is up there with the best of the LA novels, but has an air authenticity that many lack.”

I also have the distinction, dubious though it might be, of being the last person to have shot a film on the fabled MGM backlot before it bit the dust to make way for housing. According to Steven Bingen, one of the authors of the recent, well-received book MGM: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot: “That 40 page chronological list I mentioned of films shot at the studio ends with his [Paul D. Marks’] name on it.”

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, LA Late @ Night, is a collection of five of my noir and mystery stories. Since it’s a collection of five stories there wasn’t one inspiration. But if I had to pick one – or at least the one thing they all have in common, it’s the City of Angels – Los Angeles.

Welcome to Los Angeles. The city that sleeps with one eye open. Enjoy the hot Santa Ana breeze while you sip your tequila. Take a stroll down Sunset Boulevard. Dip your toes in Echo Park lake. Walk down Raymond Chandler’s mean streets.

Meet your new neighbors: A rising star defense attorney with self doubts. A dinosaur LAPD detective resistant to change. A beat cop with anger control issues. A drifter who is easily led astray. And two brothers with extra bad luck.

And of course, the city itself. The City of Angels. La-La Land. Los Angeles.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m a night person. I sleep during the day and write all night long. I’ve always been a night person and whenever I couldn’t be as soon as I could again I’d drift back to it. And these days I’m going to bed later and later or is it earlier and earlier? My wife says if I keep going the way I am I’ll eventually wind up on a “normal” schedule.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My writing inspirations are all over the place, everything and everyone from Hemingway to Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, James Ellroy, Carol O’Connell, etc. Also film noir and rock ‘n’ roll and the city of Los Angeles. In fact, I recently did a blog post on this on a blog I’ve started writing for, 7 Criminal Minds. You can find that post here and really get an eyeful of my influences, if you have the time and inclination: http://7criminalminds.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-moveable-inspiration.html

What are you working on now?
I’ve got lots of irons in the fire. The sequel to White Heat is about done. I have another mystery novel that’s also just about done. That one is set on the World War II homefront and “stars” a character that’s appeared in three of my published stories. In a less final state, I’m working on a couple of different novellas and short stories, both for myself and on assignment for a publisher.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Great websites that help promote indie writers, like the Awesome Gang, of course, are great for getting the word out about your books. Also interacting with readers on social media like Facebook and Twitter. It can be time consuming. Sometimes I feel more like a PR flack than a writer, but it’s part of the job.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t quit. And don’t get discouraged by your early drafts. It doesn’t matter how “bad” they are, just keep at them until you get them right.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
In real estate they say it’s all “location, location, location.” In writing I would say “revise, revise, revise.” Even after something of mine has been published I see things that make me cringe. And you need to have objective readers who will tell you where you’re going wrong. Be open to criticism. You don’t have to follow everything, but you should listen to it. Then, after you think you’re done, put the work down for a couple of weeks and come back to it and you’ll see all kinds of new things you want to revise.

What are you reading now?
I alternate between current authors and the classics, both genre and non-genre. At the moment I’m reading “The Grifters” by Jim Thompson, upon which a great movie was made with John Cusack and Angelica Huston.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Just to keep on plugging away at it. Work on the sequels to White Heat. Maybe a short story here and there. Novellas. My idea file has hundreds of ideas. I don’t think I could write them all in ten lifetimes.

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 Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham, a survival guide, a very thick book with very dry pages that I didn’t care about that I could use for kindling and The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas to give me inspiration for the revenge I’d be plotting against the person who stranded me there.

Author Websites and Profiles
Paul D. Marks Website
Paul D. Marks Amazon Profile
Paul D. Marks Author Profile on Smashwords

Paul D. Marks’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account