Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I wrote two books. The first book is Rhythmic Beats, which is a compilation of poetry that I wrote over the years since childhood. Some poems from this collection were published in other venues. The second book is the Lazy Dog and the Quick Fox. There are several editions of this book. For the newest edition, I added chapters 23 through 27.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Lazy Dog and the Quick Fox title was inspired by the famous pangram, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” The word “lazy” as used in the pangram doesn’t necessarily have to have a negative connotation. It could reflect a contrast between the life of a wild forest animal and a civilized tame pet. Foxes have to be quick to survive, but dogs don’t.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I am slightly ambidextrous because I had broken my right arm when I was learning to write at the age of 4 years old. I found that I could write my signature backwards with one hand and frontwards with my other hand at the same time. It didn’t matter which hand did which. They were either moving inwards toward the center of the page at the same time or moving outwards toward the edges of the page at the same time. This ability has great entertainment value with new friends because one signature was a mirror image of the other signature and they would look at the back of the page to read it right.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My favorite authors are Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, and M Terry Green. Their books, such as the Pern books, the Ringworld books, and the Techno-Shaman books, have influenced me greatly. The Pern books broadened my imagination to daily life on other worlds. The Ringworld books demonstrated the sheer size of the Ringworld where each section on the Ringworld was a copy of a world from somewhere in the galaxy, The Techno-Shaman books illustrated spiritual dimensions that I didn’t know existed in real life for a shaman.
What are you working on now?
I plan to update the Spanish version, El Perro Perezoso y el Zorro Rápido; Una Aventura del Laberinto de la Acción en Color Todo-cromático.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
So far, the best method has yet to reveal itself. The best website seems to be the individual book pages in the Createspace store website because there is a like button on each page that’s a good indicator of how many people have looked at it. I also customized the Createspace book pages to match my book themes and/or editions. I also can do a search on rebaorton on the Createspace store and all of my books would show up in the list.
Rhythmic Beats; Poetry by a Deaf Lass
https://www.createspace.com/6083126
The Lazy Dog and the Quick Fox; An Action Maze Adventure in Holochromatic Color
https://www.createspace.com/6364416
The Lazy Dog and the Quick Fox; An Action Maze Adventure in Monochromatic Grey
https://www.createspace.com/6103057
El Perro Perezoso y el Zorro Rápido; Una Aventura del Laberinto de la Acción en Color Todo-cromático
https://www.createspace.com/6508156
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I encourage new authors to use the same user name on social sites in the Internet in order to achieve consistency and optimal search engine results. For example, I use my user name rebaorton for many sites, not just social sites. I can set up a Google alert for my user name and for certain keywords. I also recommend using unique or semi-unique keywords that represent the books you write. For example, pangram, holoalphabetic, friendship, and emotional intelligence are keywords that I use to find areas on the Internet that might be good for promoting my book or for increasing my network of connections that ultimately leads back to me and my book.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I think the best advice is the one that says to get it done and when it is done, then improve on it. Don’t wait until it is perfect because then it would never get done! Perfection is in the eye of the beholder, just like beauty is. This is how I built up my website over the years since 1999 and this is the approach I’ve been taking towards my book since I started in early 2016.
What are you reading now?
I’m in between books at the moment, but my most recent reading streak was for the Reflections and Dark Reflections books written by Dean Murray or his alter ego, Eldon Murphy. I read five books of his last month (September, 2016). They were Left, Shattered, Burned, The Greater Darkness, and a Darkness Mirrored.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m thinking of a tesseract, which includes a fourth dimension beyond a 3D cube. In other words, a tesseract is a cube within a cube. I want to create a children’s story based on this concept. As a child, the wheels within wheels English phrase was a difficult concept for me to understand but it was mentioned in the Good News edition of the Bible. I thought it would be a cool children’s book to explain this phrase and the tesseract with my deeper understanding of these concepts.
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 a blank spiral notebook to write notes in, a dictionary, and a thesaurus. These are the things I grew up with and I may find them essential without a computer and the Internet.
Author Websites and Profiles
Rebecca Rose Orton Website
Rebecca Rose Orton Amazon Profile
Rebecca Rose Orton Author Profile on Smashwords
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