Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi, my name is Parker Smith. I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2016, where I majored in history and philosophy of science, and minored in chemistry. I was a national silver medalist in the Scholastic Art and Writing contest for a short story I entered in the humor category. I received this honor at Carnegie Hall in New York City over the summer of 2007. I have written two books. One was a fictional novel titled “The Days Are Blood” that I wrote for the 2011 NaNoWriMo National Novel Writing Month contest, but I’ve never released it for the public (and probably never will!). My second book is radically different, and was written for students preparing to take the GED® exam. I am currently running www.testprepchampions.com, a website that offers products and a free blog with lots of useful advice to help students achieve their academic goals.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called “The Champions’ Guide to Winning On the 2017 GED® Test Math Section From Test Prep Champions.” This book includes 209 comprehensive practice problems with in-depth solutions to help students excel on the math section of the GED® test. This book was inspired by my real life experiences as a GED® test preparation tutor. Over the years as a tutor I’ve gotten to know many amazing students, and I wanted to extend what I’ve seen work with them to more students!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My most unusual writing habit is writing without a plan! My middle school and high school english teachers would always give me a hard time about this, but it’s usually how I work best to this day. While it’s helpful for some to create outlines and schedules and things like this, I’ve always worked best by just sitting down and writing! I never really know where my work is going to end up until I have it complete!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Believe it or not, I’m a huge Stephen King fan! Stephen King has produced an inordinate number of classics over the years, and like him or not, there’s plenty to learn from him about story telling! Cal Newport has also been influential to me. Cal is an M.I.T. professor who also happens to be a blogger and author; I’ve learned a lot from both his books and blog!
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on an educational book intended to help students master logarithms, as well as books to help students master basic math topics like fractions, square roots, and exponents. In addition, I’m working on a book to help college students excel in Organic Chemistry that I’m aiming to have completed soon!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My main website is www.testprepchampions.com. The Test Prep Champion’s mission is to provide high-quality products and a free blog full of useful advice to help students achieve their academic goals! I also maintain a twitter account and a Goolge+ account.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Have patience… It can take a really long time to produce high-quality work! Also, read as much as possible!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Some of the best advice I ever heard was from Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who said “don’t look at the scoreboard. Whether you’re ahead or behind shouldn’t affect how you participate.” In fact, this advice has had such a profound impact on me that I even wrote a blog post centered around it on my website!
What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading “Modern Man in Search of a Soul” Carl Gustav Jung.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I aim to keep pushing the envelope by coming up with more innovative work! I really want to provide amazing content in my blog posts for free in new ways that have never been done before! I want to deliver useful, informative, and entertaining content to my readers! I have one blog post that I’ve been working on for quite a while now, but I still haven’t published it yet; it seems to be turning into a masterpiece so far! The biggest challenge I’m having as a writer right now is figuring out the best way to appeal to the multiple different audiences that visit my website. For example, I have lots of college student readers that frequent my website to read my motivational and study skills posts. I also have lots of readers who visit my site specifically for the free GED® preparation content. I’m working hard to make sure there’s something for everyone! In addition, at some point down the line I’d like to try my hand at writing a self-help book aimed at helping people to quit smoking! This project would be something entirely different from my current work with testprepchampions.com!
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?
Wow this is a really tough one…
The first book I would take would definitely be the Bible, as I used to go to religious school when I was younger and my faith is still very important for me. My next pick (and admittedly somewhat contradictory to the first) would be Stephen King’s “It.” Besides being my personal favorite Stephen King novel, this book is over 1,000 pages and has A LOT of depth to it; it would definitely keep me busy on the island! The third book I would bring would be the collected works of C. G. Jung. I’ve been reading Jung off and on for the past 8 months now, and I keep telling myself I’m going to go back through the collected works again when I have the time. There’s plenty to ponder there, and plenty that admittedly flew over my head on my first reading, so I might as well bring this along too! The last book I would bring would be a scrapbook of photos of close friends and family, for obvious reasons!
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