I'm here to tell you about Roundtable Redcap. It's just about done, but I'm waiting on my cover. I'm expecting it, still, by the end of the month, September 1 at the latest. So, because I don't have a beautiful, awesomesauce cover of my own to show you right now, Here's one from another author. Her name is Ellie Mack, and her book is called Quotidiandose: 30 Days of Sass, and it's high in freaking lariousness, which I know all of you like. Check out that smirk! Here's a bit more about Ellie's Nonfiction Humor book. This collection of daily musings combine edgy, funny, practical, everyday reality with a dose of personal sass. There are life-lessons in the words that are applicable for everyone. I hope they will put a smile on your face and brighten your day! But wait! There's more! I am so excited about this because you all know I work on charity anthologies. Well, this book is awesome for yet another reason: a portion of proceeds from print copies of this book will go to Action for Autism. And here's a little something about Ellie herself, whose smiling face you can see right here. Ellie Mack received her BS in cartography from Southeast Missouri State University. After leaving the corporate world for the title of MOM, she has pursued her writing dreams. Nowadays Ellie charts unmapped territory through her fiction and humor writing. She lives near St. Louis with her husband of 30 years and their two teen daughters. When she's not writing, she can be found scrapbooking, crocheting, or cooking. You can find her musings on her blog Quotidiandose.
You can also follow Ellie on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Thanks, Ellie, for letting me talk about your book!
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It's the second to last week in the Summer Splash set of interviews. For week eight, we have Cat Banks! Here's a bit about her. Catherine Banks is the author of the Artemis Lupine Series, Little Death Bringer Series, Ciara Steele Novella Series, and the novel Daughter of Lions. She began writing fiction stories when she was only four years old and finished her first full length novel at the age of fifteen. Catherine is a Northern California native and has lived within a twenty mile radius her entire life. She plans to travel to as many places as possible in her thirties to make up for her lack of traveling experience. She is married to her soulmate and best friend, Avery, who blessed her with two amazing children. After her full time job she reads books, plays video games, and watches a lot of anime shows and movies with her family to relax. D.R.- Dancing or singing? C.B.- I’m not good at either, but I would choose singing. D.R.- Beach or woods? C.B.- I like both, but for different reasons. I would visit the woods more and would definitely live in the woods and not the ocean. D.R.- Coffee or tea or something else? C.B.- Tea or water. D.R.- What book do you recommend the most? C.B.- Anything by Ilona Andrews. D.R.- Where is the one place you think everyone should go? C.B.- Pismo Beach, California. It’s beautiful. D.R.- How do you get ideas for stories? C.B.- There are lots of ways that I get ideas. Sometimes I get an idea from a song lyric, a piece of scenery as I’m driving, or a feeling. D.R.- Which genres do you write and what's your favorite one? C.B.- I write in fantasy, but have been dabbling in steampunk lately. Fantasy is my favorite to write in for sure. D.R.- What do you do if you see your idea has already been done? C.B.- Think of a different set of circumstances for my characters or scrap the idea. D.R.- What's your best writer's block buster? C.B.- Either work on a different story or make your characters go a random direction. D.R.- What's the best advice you've gotten about writing? C.B.- If you’re stuck on a book, think of the most unlikely thing to happen to your characters, something that would never happen, and then make it happen to them and make them find a way out of it. You can find Catherine on her website, at her blog, on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. Hello! I'm trying something new for a while. You see, us authors have friends. We have friends who illustrate, friends who promote, friends who edit, friends who are just plain awesome. So, I'm going to use Friday as a way to introduce some friends to other friends. Like this guy right here. This is my friend, J.D. Cunegan. Yeah, okay, so us folks who go by initials flock together sometimes. Don't give us grief, or we'll initialize your names, okay? No, that's not okay? Eep! Okay, I won't do anything to your names, but I will initialize the rest of this post now. Anyway, One awesome thing about J.D. is, even though he writes some amazing superhero fiction, he also helps other writers edit their work. Keep that in mind when you check out his links and such in the slideshow after the interview. Oh, I said there'd be an interview? Well, I'd better go ahead and post it, then! D.R.- What's your favorite song for writing? J.D.- I have a few playlists at the ready that I go to depending on what I’m writing. My generic writing playlist is full of hard rock and metal, because for some reason, having something hard and heavy to listen to gets my butt in gear. If I’m in the middle of writing an epic fight scene or something like that, I have an instrumental playlist I turn to. I know a lot of writers prefer to write in silence, but I find I need something in my ear… and a lot of times, it’s the same stuff I listen to when I’m not writing. D.R.- Beach or woods? J.D.- One might think that I would go with woods, since I live by the beach. But I’ll go with beach, because there’s no telling what lives in the woods, and I’d rather not inadvertently run afoul of a bear. At least on the beach, I’m relatively safe – especially if I stay out of the water. D.R.- Coffee or tea or something else? J.D.- In the morning, give me coffee. In the evening or late at night? A mug of hot tea is lovely – and it makes for a great writing partner. D.R.- What book do you recommend the most? J.D.- Lately, it’s either been Grave Beginnings or Grave Measures by R.R. Virdi, Untamed by Madeline Dyer, or the Daggers & Steele series from Alex P. Berg. D.R.- How do you get ideas for stories? J.D.- The majority of the stories I write center around the premise of “what if such-and-such happened to this character?” or “what if this character decided to do X?” I try to make every story character-centric, because to me, characters are more important than plot. As a reader, if I’m not emotionally invested in the characters, I won’t care what they do or what happens to them. That philosophy has carried over to my writing. D.R.- Which genres do you write and what's your favorite one? J.D.- My current series is a hybrid murder mystery/thriller/science fiction. One wouldn’t think those genres would go together, but they do. The juxtaposition of my main character being a homicide cop and a superhero is, ultimately, what makes that mashup work so well. Among the other books I’m writing, one is a fantasy/supernatural epic, another is a supernatural thriller, and the last is a political thriller. I’m kind of all over the place, it would seem. D.R.- What do you do if you see your idea has already been done? J.D.- Either find a twist that would differentiate mine from the other work, or focus my attention on making sure the characters are unique and can stand out on their own merits. I find that if readers are invested in the characters, they’ll overlook or forgive some of the other issues. It helps to know there’s nothing truly original anymore, understanding that everything derives from something. D.R.- What's your best writer's block buster? J.D.- Reading. I find that when I get blocked, it’s because I’ve been swimming around my own words for too long. Stepping back and letting myself get lost in someone else’s words for a while helps break up the cobwebs are recharge the batteries. D.R.- What's the best advice you've gotten about writing? J.D.- Don’t worry about being perfect right out of the gate. No one’s writing is publish-ready on the first draft. Even the millionaire bestsellers churn out relative crap when they sit down to write something for the first time. A bad sentence can be fixed; a sentence that’s never been written cannot. D.R.- Tell me about the biggest surprise your own character, story, or setting has given you. J.D.- To reveal all of the details would spoil the end of my most recent novel, Behind the Badge (which is the third book in my Jill Andersen series), but suffice to say, that book ends with my protagonist making two major, life-altering decisions that I never saw coming when I first sat down to write the book. She did two things I never expected her to do, but it ultimately worked out so well that I decided to keep it. Because if I’m surprised, then chances are, my readers will be surprised. You can find J.D. on his website (that's where the editing magic happens), Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Goodreads and, of course, Author Central. Okay, folks, it's slideshow time! Hello! This week we have an interview with A.M. Nestler! Here's a little bit about her: Ashley Nestler (A.M. Nestler) is a published author. Her first novel, "Beautiful Nightmare: Some Dreams Become Your Reality", was published when she was eighteen. "Into The Fog" was released when she was nineteen. She is currently working on a secret third novel that will be released by April next year, and writes under the genres of young adult, epic fantasy, historical fiction, and literary fiction. She is also a big part of the indie author movement and is the owner/creator of the Go Indie Now! Bibliotherapy Box, as well as a book reviewer and an educator on the publishing experience - both indie and mainstream. D.R.- Dancing or singing? A.N.- Dancing. I have been a ballerina since I was little, and dancing is a big part of my life. I love being able to express with movement. D.R.- Beach or woods? A.N.- Woods. I love the earth and the mystery that woods hold. The smell is also wonderful, and growing up in Colorado conditioned me to love the mountains and the woods there. Coffee or tea or something else? Definitely tea. I have more than three cups of tea daily. I am a bit addicted. D.R.- What book do you recommend the most? A.N.- My favorite book is The Pact by Jodi Picoult. It is a beautifully haunting tale about a young girl who commits suicide. However, they think that her boyfriend killed her because she was pregnant and he was with her when she committed suicide. It is a must read! Picoult is a master of the human experience. D.R.- What do you do if you see your idea has already been done? A.N.- This is a trick question, because in all reality most everything has been done in terms of literature. However, I don’t think that any one author owns any one concept. If your idea has “already been done”, just find a way to make it your own. Create your own characters and story-line, and make your story something that hasn’t been done before, but may have the same concepts as others. D.R.- What's your best writer's block buster? A.N.- When I have writer’s block, I just make sure not to push myself. I let my mind rest, and absorb myself in my reading. I think letting yourself rest is the best way to take time before getting back to writing. D.R.- What's the best advice you've gotten about writing? A.N.- The best advice I have ever gotten about writing is to make sure that your characters don’t run away with your story. This means, don’t make your story so complicated that you can’t even keep up with all of the details yourself. Sometimes your characters can become so alive that you can’t keep up with every little thing about them, and it is best to have a well-executed simple story than an overcrowded novel. D.R.- What's the food or drink you always tell other people to try? A.N.- I always tell people to try this chocolate cream soda that a small brewery makes here in Colorado. It is to die for, and tastes like a liquid tootsie roll. D.R.- Where is the one place you think everyone should go? A.N.- I honestly think that everyone should try and find the hidden treasures in their own cities and towns. There are so many things that people miss in their own cities just because they live there, and I think that everyone should live like a tourist for at least one day in their city. D.R.- How do you get ideas for stories? A.N.- I honestly let stories come to me. I know that sounds lame, but I don’t sit down and plan out a story. I just let my mind come up with a concept and let it grow from there. D.R.- Which genres do you write and what's your favorite one? A.N.- I write across just about every genre, but my favorite one to write is epic fantasy. I think that that genre allows for the most freedom as an author, and I love being able to create my own worlds. Ashley is on Goodreads, Facebook, Author Central and has a blog where she reviews books. Check out her covers in the slideshow below and click for links to her work. You can even get a Bibliotherapy box with Ashley's work in it here! Back in July, I promised you'd see a mysterious guest author of mysteriousness. I'll give you a hint. He did a guest post here before. No guesses? Well, today's the day, so here's author Brandon Varnell!
Hello! It's your Friendly Neighborhood Writer here bringing you another friendly writer! This is Kristan Cannon, who writes the Kingdom of Walden series. Kristan loves cats, sailing, reading, and gaming. She's a member of The Indie Writer's Network and the NaNoWriMo Ambassador's program. D.R.- Dancing or singing? KC- Dancing D.R.- Beach or Woods? KC- A secluded beach in the woods. D.R.- Coffee, tea, or something else? KC- All of the above. D.R.- What book do I recommend? KC- Hunting Party by Elizabeth Moon D.R.- How do you get ideas for stories? KC- From life itself. Everything. Sometimes from what scares me, or what makes me feel something deeply. D.R.- Which genres do you write and what's your favourite one? KC- I write literary fiction, with a leaning to speculative fiction. My favourite is easily speculative. D.R.- What do you do if you see your idea has already been done? KC- I do it anyway. There's no way I'm going to be able to do it the same way, in any shape or fashion, than the other author did. Something will head off into the wild blue yonder and take my story in a new and different direction. D.R.- What's your best writer's block buster? KC- Taking a break and getting out. Or finding a new set of four walls (or none) to write in. D.R.- Tell me about the biggest surprise your own character, story, or setting has given you. KC- My main character was supposed to be "The Obi-Wan" of the story and die halfway through the book to give the main character that is no longer the main character a reason to leave the farm. Now that's been turned on its head. The mentor is now still the mentor, and still on the borderline of "maybe I should retire", but now the story is all about him.... and there's four books all about him. D.R.- Where is one place you think everyone should go? KC- To their national library. The work that goes into an archive that huge is staggering and humbling. Today, we have an interview with S.D. Ferrell! Here's a little bit about her. S.D. Ferrell is a writer, self-published author, and creative artist. Ms. Ferrell was born the 1st of October 1960 in Norfolk General Hospital, in Simcoe Ontario Canada. She grew up on a small hobby farm in Windham Centre, with her parents, six sisters and one brother. Her fondest memories of childhood were on the farm and the time she spent outside with her siblings. They had grand adventures in the forest that curved around the property. She remembers a majestic willow tree with long flowing branches that grew beside the laneway – they swung from those branches until they were giddy with laughter. There were also cherry trees in the front yard that she climbed, and sat on the branches for what seemed like hours on end. Among the leaves she was free to allow her mind to take flights of fancy. Nature was a playground for a little girl with a vivid imagination who would one day grow up to be a writer. "Is it any wonder," Ms. Ferrell says, "that my debut novel starts in a forest and one of the main characters throughout the series is a tree." S.D. is a proud mother to five daughters and a grandmother to fourteen wonderful grandchildren. She presently resides in Simcoe Ontario and is working on the third book in the series, The Long Road Home. She and the artist, Evee Fex-Chriszt, are busy completing the 4th and final book in the series, The Keeper’s Guide. D.R.- Dancing or singing? S.D.- I love to dance, it is one of my favorite things to do. D.R.- Beach or woods? S.D.- I like both. I prefer early morning walks on the beach, before it gets too hot or crowded. I have a kinship with the woods though that is undeniable. There is something comforting about being surrounded by the trees and all the lush undergrowth. I love the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves, the trickling of water as is flows through a creek, the songs of the birds as they nest and fly overhead, and the colours in the woods are so vivid and varying in contrast. I think the woods speak to me on an artistic level. D.R.- Coffee or tea or something else? S.D.- I drink both actually. I like coffee first thing in the morning. I tend to drink tea when I am not feeling well. I usually add a little bit of honey, ginger and lemon to it. As for the something else, I have been known to top my coffee off with a shot or two of Bailey’s Irish cream. I also drink a lot of Pepsi. I have tried for years to curb my thirst for it, but have failed miserably. It is a go to remedy for when I am stressed or when I am creating. D.R.- What's the food or drink you always tell other people to try? S.D.- Peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches. I ate them when I was kid, and still do as an adult. D.R.- What book do you recommend the most? S.D.- Besides my own, I recommend William Goldman’s abridgment of The Princess Bride. I loved reading all his side-bar notes. They gave a glimpse of life in Hollywood from a first-hand perspective. It was a very interesting and enjoyable read. D.R.- Where is the one place you think everyone should go? S.D.- Back home, where it all began. I think visiting where you grew-up as a child is important in a therapeutic sense. If you have never left home, I think you should go wherever your heart desires. D.R.- How do you get ideas for stories? S.D.- Ideas find their way to me, I am just open to receive them. I hear a lot of authors say, “It just came to me.” In a lot of ways that is true. I think ideas are constantly floating around and if you are open to receive them, they will find their way to you. D.R.- Which genres do you write and what's your favorite one? S.D.- Presently, I have self-published titles in, Fantasy Adventure, Adult Comedy, and Cozy Erotica. I don’t really have a favorite genre, but I do have a fondness for comedy that tends to make into every genre I write in. D.R.- What do you do if you see your idea has already been done? S.D.- I create it anyways. There are infinite possibilities when storytelling in respect to plot and twists, characters, dialogue, geographical and time positioning that to deny yourself the opportunity to tell a story, because someone else has had the same idea is unfortunate. D.R.- Tell me about the biggest surprise your own character, story, or setting has given you. S.D.- I think the biggest surprise for me is that I have created a character, Jasper, that readers have fallen in love with and have a vested interest in his well-being. It is truly unexplainable how wonderful I feel when readers talk about him or ask what is in store for him. He was supposed to be a minor character, but ended up being the hero of the first book, The Valley Time Forgot. His story was to gradually fall to the back as we highlighted the actual heroines of the story the Whipple Wash Fairies. However, because readers related to him so passionately he was given a bigger part in the second book The Shadow of Erebos. Jasper’s story will continue in the 3rd book where he will find himself, once again, the centre of attention. You can find out more about S.D. Ferrell on her website, connect with her on Facebook and Twitter, and buy her books from her Author Central page on Amazon. |
Archives
August 2022
D.R. Perry's books on Goodreads
Fangs for the Memories (Providence Paranormal College, #2)
reviews: 17
ratings: 41 (avg rating 4.20)
A Change In Crime: A Supernatural Depression-Era Thriller (La Famiglia di Mostri, #1)
reviews: 9
ratings: 15 (avg rating 4.27) |