Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a part-time writing/media professor in Florida with a number of unfinished manuscripts and finally a published novel! Not that those theses and multiple ad campaigns from my previous career weren’t fabulous!
Feeling Lucky is my 1st published novel, so of course, it’s special to me. But I think it’s pretty special because it’s a love story about leprechauns and ambition and what happens when you don’t quite achieve everything you think you’re supposed to. Turns out compensating by getting drunk and pinching cute strangers has consequences.
Feeling Lucky includes Shakespeare and romance and the struggle to keep enough diet cola on hand when your house is invaded by fairies. There might also be some satire in there about banking and politics as well, but I plead the 5th on that.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Feeling Lucky was inspired by Kathy Love’s Fangs, But No Fangs. She wrote a funny scene about a vampire getting his butt pinched by an older lady, a “she-clown.” I laughed, but then I thought “that’s a little unfair. Older ladies can appreciate a good-looking man too!” Then I thought vampires might be sexy, but what you really need to capture is a leprechaun because they have money!
My grandmother just laughed when I told her that I channeled her advice for my 1st book.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have a bad back, so I move from bed to bed. I have futons and pillows in every room of the house but the kitchen. Makes for really comfortable sleepovers though when friends get too tipsy to drive home.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh, that’s an out-of-control list! I love books. The ones I cannot get rid of though are:
Terry Pratchett – any of the Disc World series
Robert Asprin – all of the Myth books
James P. Blaylock – The Disappearing Dwarf
Kenneth Grahame – The Wind in the Willows
Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, and of course, Taming of the Shrew, not that I identify with Kate or anything.
What are you working on now?
I just finished the sequel to Feeling Lucky. Restless Spirits takes up where Feeling Lucky left off with Marilee Harper job-hunting after she accidentally set fire to her best friend’s house.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Since I teach media as well as writing, I play on the internet all the time! The secret to any advertising is finding the unique combination of message, medium, and audience for you. You find it through careful trial and error.
Here’s where you can find me:
kathybryson.wordpress.com
twitter.com/kathybryson2
facebook.com/kathybryson22
plus.google.com/118438646025517720984
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Proofread! And no, that wasn’t just me channeling my inner teacher! There are some wonderful stories out there that are so poorly presented, the author might as well have not bothered. Even if they make some sales, they’ve just packaged themselves as amateurs.
It’s difficult anyway to read your work as the reader, so find someone you can work with, give yourself time to come back to your story with fresh ideas, and then don’t be afraid to revise. Plan on it in fact! Save your 1st draft and work n a revision file so you can always go back to your original, but make changes. Try new things and see what happens.
The review and revise step is what will set you above the crowd and make your voice distinct.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
My best advice comes from friends and family who tell me to calm down. I always expect immediate, fabulous success even though I know that’s a complete fantasy. Comes from all those years in advertising! So the occasional reminder that writing success is a long, slow process that doesn’t always manifest as money is a helpful reminder – more’s the pity!
What are you reading now?
I just finished Heather Blakes’ series launch, A Potion to Die For. I’m waiting for Dakota Cassidy’s The Accidental Werewolf: Something About Harry and Gerry Bartlett’s Real Vampires Know Size Matters to show up in the mail, and I’m hoping someone gets me Stephen King’s Dr. Sleep for Christmas. That’s just the top of my list!
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m starting on the 3rd book in the series. I have in mind 5 books. Then I think I’d like to explore the younger generation of the Fayetteville Fairies! Then again, I might work on that house cats as alien explorers cozy mystery I’ve been mulling.
The really wonderful part about writing is that it never ends. There’s always another story to read and tell. Getting published is just a really nice confidence boost!
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’ll only go if I can load up my Kindle to capacity 1st, and oh, I’ll need an extra battery pack or two. And some sunscreen. Maybe some water.
Author Websites and Profiles
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