Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
We are a mother and son writing team, my son Charles is the creative mind who comes up with all the story ideas and together we flesh it out until we have a great story. So far we have written 2 books in the Kai’s Journey series. Book one is published and the second is set to publish very soon. We have written two short stories. One is titled The Curse of the Red Eyed Witch, by CharlesSiefken and the other is titled Hiding in Plain Sight by Wendy Siefken.
These two shorts were enetered into a contest last year and were published this year. Charlie takes care of the creative side and I take care of the marketing side.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of our latest book is Kai’s Journey, A New Beginning. This is the second book in the series of Kai and Clover series. This all started from a character in a video game my son saw a few years ago. It wasn’t even a main character and it blossomed from there.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Everywhere Charlie and I go, we take a notebook. We write ideas down that strike us for either a current story we are working on or a new story idea. I use it to also come up with marketing ideas as well. We talk to each other about story lines and ideas no matter where we are. That can get you into a bit of trouble when you are talking about how to kill off a character in a restaurant.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
For Charlie it is Christopher Paolini and for me it would have to be Terry Brooks the most.
What are you working on now?
We are working on Book three of Kai’s Journey as well as a couple of new ones we have going. The Chimera Effect and Fallen Angel. Both are futuristic but one takes place on earth while the other takes place in outer space.
The Chimera Effect has to do with what if we created a hybred of species to basically do all the stuff we don’t want to do or that is illegal to do.
The story line Fallen Angel has to do with a ship that has an Artificial Intellegence in it that fails in her mission to protect her crew on a mission so is sentenced to float in space as a derelict. a couple of generations later a pirate ship finds her and the adventure begins.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That is something that time will tell. So far its been going to sites like facebook and joining groups where we particpate, help promote others and along the way ourselves. We have joined sites like Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, We have a blog that we did interviews of other authors on that was a really good way to get our name out there. Right now we are going to different sites like this and placing ads in them to see if this will help broaden our reach. Since we are YA book authors we can’t go to each and every school out there to tell our story so we have to find other ways.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing, keep learning and what ever you do, never respond to a negative review. Learn from that review and ignore any negativity in it. Most of all, never give up.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Dont give up.
What are you reading now?
Charlie is reading Dark Warrior Rising by Ed Greenwood and I am reading Dragonwand by Dan Peyton. Dan’s book is still in the editing phase and I am a beta reader for him. He is a wonderful writer and I really love his stories.
What’s next for you as a writer?
We hope to move up to the next level of being an author and thats to keep publishing books. We hope to continue to learn about this great business of publishing, marketing and promoting.
What is your favorite book of all time?
Charlie’s favorite book of all time is Eragon by Christopher Paolini and mine would have to be Jubal Sackett by Louis Lamoure.
Author Websites and Profiles
Wendy Siefken Website
Wendy Siefken Amazon Profile
Wendy Siefken Author Profile on Smashwords
Wendy Siefken’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account