Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a quirky old lady with too many stories to tell. I was born on Halloween, I’m a Scorpio, and I’ve dabbled in psychic phenomena, including out-of-body experiences. I’ve written about a dozen books, but some were not published.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest books were for my young grandchildren, but not for the general public. I also published a private book titled Guru’s Path, which was inspired by my experiences with psychic phenomena.
My latest adult novel was The Ghost of Calico Acres, also inspired by my love of mysteries and ESP.
I also published three novels set in the Arctic: The Haunted Igloo (8-12), Spirit Lights (9+), and Drum Dance (YA -Adult). All my books are in digital and print editions.
I have a special interest in the Arctic and global warming and have owned two wonderful Siberian Huskies.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m a right-brain writer and I often play special music to help set the tone of my stories. For example, for Face the Winter Naked, I played banjo music, and for a hazardous canoe venture in Drum Dance, I played Enya’s “Watermark.” To this day, I can play those songs and be immediately transported back to those scenes.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Stephen King has influenced me, as have Mark Twain and Tom Tryon. Favorite books are Giants in the Earth, Steamboat Gothic, and many others too numerous to list.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on women’s fiction, using a pseudonym, since it’s somewhat erotic. I’m about halfway done and crack myself up when I read it through, because the one-liners seem to come out of nowhere. The 2016 election took some of the humor out of me and gave me a huge writer’s block. But I’m feeling the urge to pick up the works again and actually finish it. I LOVE my characters. (Sorry I can’t reveal the pen name.)
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I really struggle to promote my books. It’s a chore I dread, but must do if I want to sell books. I use Amazon.com, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but not consistently.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Advice to new writers: Get that first draft down before discussing it with anyone. The story is in YOU, and if you discuss it with others, they’re going to tell you what to write and how to do it. So don’t. I’ve seen writers blab their work, then put it away, never to work on it again. By talking it out, they had no more reason to write it. Your subconscious knows what to put in your story; your friends don’t.
Other than that, PLEASE get a few beta readers as soon as you can. They can point out errors you can correct before paying for expensive editing. A good copy- or line-editor is worth their weight in gold, as is a proofreader. Writers need these types of help to make their work shine.
Unless you’ve had some art classes, don’t make your own book cover. There are some very good and reasonable cover artists.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I’ve ever heard was “write what you know.” You don’t have to personally experience something, though, as long as you can research online. I enjoy researching almost more than I do the writing itself.
And read read read. Read everything you can. Writers cannot write unless they read a lot.
Pick up some good grammar books and study them. My favorite is The Chicago Manual of Style. This is the publishing bible for most professionals.
What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading The Trail Drivers of Texas, by J. Marvin Hunter. (Sketches of cowboy tails from the old west.)
What’s next for you as a writer?
I don’t know if I’ll have time for all the books I want to write. First, I need to finish the women’s fiction. Then I want to write requested sequels to The Ghost of Calico Acres and Face the Winter Naked. I never considered doing a sequel for FTWN until after I recently wrote an epilogue for that book. Lo and behold, there’s another story bumping around in my mind. The epilogue is three years after the end of the novel, and one of the characters is now 15…and he’s going to take off and have a story of his own to tell (if I can swing 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?
Giants in the Earth, The Complete Works of Robert Service, and Steamboat Gothic are my first choices. There are others, which would probably sink the ship that strands me on the desert island.
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