Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been writing fiction and nonfiction since I was in elementary school. My older sisters taught me to read before I started school and I’ve loved words and stories ever since! Most of my jobs even involved words in some form: clerk, secretary, word processing, columnist, and author of essays, articles, nonfiction, and fiction. I’ve published 13 novels and 7 nonfiction titles, and have several other novels with my agent and that haven’t release yet.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Haunting of Fury Falls Inn will release October 1, 2019, and was inspired by my desire to write a supernatural historical story set in a hotel of sorts. Adding in the ghosts and magical elements in the story and the rest of the series makes writing the historical more interesting for me and hopefully makes it more interesting to read, too!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not that I’m aware of, but then my habits probably wouldn’t seem unusual to me.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I recently read a writing craft book by Donald Maass that helped me see storytelling from a different angle. Over the last few years, I’ve learned so much about the art of storytelling that it’s hard for me to pinpoint one author or book — it’s more a combination of all of the information. Then reading other fiction works and seeing how other authors have used those techniques or not.
What are you working on now?
I’m revising a WWII story set in Baltimore, MD, which was inspired by my parents’ correspondence during and after the war.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
All of my books are listed at my website: www.bettybolte.com with excerpts available to read so you can see if you like the storytelling before you buy a copy of your own.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write the story you want to tell. Keep honing your craft through reading, taking workshops, joining a writing organization. The quality of the story is more important than how quickly you get published. If you publish a shallow or shoddy story, people won’t want to read whatever you write next.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You are the best you can be at this moment. Meaning, that while change is constant and you might improve in some way, have the confidence to know you are the best in this moment that you can be. In other words, you can’t suddenly lose 10 pounds, or speak another language.
What are you reading now?
Whirligig by Richard Buxton, a Civil War historical novel.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Working on the remaining 5 books in the Fury Falls Inn series is uppermost on my mind. But I have several other historical stories I want to tell, too.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
That’s a really hard question to answer! I don’t re-read many books except for writing craft ones, so I’d probably pull several of those by Donald Maass, Lisa Cron, and David Corbett.
Author Websites and Profiles
Betty Bolte Website
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