Complementing my daily blog interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the seventy-second, is of memoirist / children’s author Mollie Carson-Vollath.
Mollie Carson-Vollath was born in New York. She has owned dozens of ferrets over the past three decades, most of whom she adopted from rescue shelters. An avid reader, Mollie has been writing for most of her life. Terrence O’Ferret, her first book, tells the story of how she came to own her first ferret when she was a young girl, back when not many people even knew what ferrets were. A portion of the proceeds from Terrence O’Ferret goes to benefit Father Nature’s Ferret Rescue.
And now from the author herself:
How Terrence O’Ferret Came to Be:
Well, the book tells the story of how I discovered ferrets. This is the story of how the book got made.
One morning, 4:00AM, I was lying in bed trying to get back to sleep. My mind wandered back to my first ferret, and I thought, I should write down everything about him that I want to remember. So I fumbled around for my old Treo, typed up about 3 paragraphs, and went back to sleep.
For some reason, of all the things I have written, those few paragraphs were what stuck in my mind when I decided to illustrate and publish a full-blown professional book. So I spent several months doing just that, and there you have it. It’s been far more work, and far more fun, and far more rewarding, than I would have believed.
For example, there were very few original photos of Terry. So Father Nature’s Ferret Rescue stepped in, providing a stunt double (Vixen), and a few fun hours playing with her, coaxing her to chew up shoes (she didn’t need much encouragement!), and taking hundreds of photos.
I hope people will enjoy reading my book as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Thank you, Mollie. You can find more about Mollie and her writing via her website and Terrence O’Ferret is available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with humourist and satirist Joel White – tomorrow, April Fool’s Day! – the three hundred and twenty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me. You can read / download my eBooks from Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore and Kobo (Amazon to follow). And I have a new forum at http://morgenbailey.freeforums.org.
Bruce: When I was working on my books “For Those About To Cook” and “For Those About To Cook, Pure Metal” I worked hand-in-hand with 
Connie: Why is it that I always have something to say until someone asks me to tell them about myself? Well, let’s see. I am a married mom of ten-year-old twins. I was born and raised in the South and many refer to me as a true Steel Magnolia. My family and I live in a small suburb of Atlanta, Georgia and enjoy many things that a small town has to offer.
My latest release, Dying Days 2, is the third book I’ve had the pleasure of writing about Darlene Bobich. She’s witty, has a great sense of humor, is far from superhuman… she cries, she has panic attacks, she gets depressed and hides under the covers for three days. Yet, when her life is on the line she can put a bullet between your eyes without flinching. In short, she’s pretty normal.
I think I’ve done something original with Darlene Bobich and the Dying Days series by offering her up as a strong character, someone you can relate to, someone you root for when the zombies are surrounding her and the bad guys are at the door. She’s the twenty-eight year old you meet at the mall trying to sell you makeup so she can make her next car payment, unlucky in love and with too much self-doubt.
Armand Rosamilia is a New Jersey boy currently living in sunny Florida. His latest release, the horror short story collection, Skulls, is available now as an eBook. Previous releases include many, many zombie stories… and many more to come… You can reach him at 
Quentin: Hello. These days I live in the south of England. I spent ten years living in Iceland and the links with that part of the world are still very strong, not least because that’s where my fiction is set. I’m not sure exactly how I came to write. It’s something that was always there in the background. I trained originally to be a ship’s officer and spent a few years at sea, and from there fell into an obscure branch of journalism. The step into fiction was something I had always seen as a mug’s game as the chances of becoming published are so slim for a newcomer. So I had to give it a try and was fortunate to be taken on by a fine literary agent who cracked the whip, supplied excellent advice and found me publishers in the UK, US, Germany and Holland.
Quentin: Frozen Out (2011) (Frozen Assets in the US) and Cold Comfort (US, Jan 2012. UK, March 2012)
Quentin: My UK publisher changed the title of the first book to Frozen Out just before publication, which is why the book is Frozen Assets in the US. With hindsight, they were quite right to make the change, but I’d have preferred it to have been done earlier. There was a minor disagreement over Cold Comfort, as that was the title I wanted and I got my way on that. Covers are extremely important and you have to accept that the marketing whizzes know what they’re doing. They’re not something I have a much say in although I’d like to think that it could be discussed if there were a cover that I absolutely hated. For Cold Comfort I was fortunate enough to be able to persuade Yrsa Sigurdardóttir to supply the cover blurb, and that kind of recommendation really helps.
Quentin: Very hard to say. It depends a great deal on what the rise in eBooks brings with it. The spectre of piracy is disturbing as it could mean that writers simply won’t be able to afford to write. At the time of writing, Cold Comfort hasn’t even been published, but there are already download sites out there that are offering free downloads of the eBook. That’s disturbing.
Christopher C. Starr is the author of The Road to Hell: The Book of Lucifer, the first novel in the Heaven Falls series. These stories examine the God’s relationship with Heaven and Earth, told through the eyes of the angels. The next book in the series, Come Hell or Highwater, is scheduled for late 2012 / early 2013.
As writers, we tend to err on the side of what sounds good, what looks good on paper, what we think will sell. We write for that ever elusive “reader” who inhabits our unconscious, the one telling us, “Oooh, don’t write that. What will Mom or Dad or Uncle Chuck or Rev. Wiggins think?” or “That’s not how King or Rowling or Collins or Grisham does it. I wonder if that will sell.” But that line of thinking does a disservice to you and to your real readers. If they want Rowling or King or Grisham, they’ll buy them. Those authors are not hard to find. Your readers want you. The real you. Honest to goodness you.
You can find more about Chris and his writing via his 
Jochem: Check out my blog 
It’s been a few months since my last post on Morgen’s blog so it is wonderful to have this opportunity again. The article featured my debut short story, the YA fantasy eBook ‘
Sarahjane Funnell is the Regional PR Officer for LUSH Cosmetics and a newly published children’s fiction author. Predominantly she writes young children’s picture books and middle grade stories set in magical places and enchanted lands. You can find out more about Sarahjane via 
Born and raised in Surrey, England, CYNTHIA SALLY HAGGARD has lived in the United States for twenty-nine years. She has had four careers: violinist, cognitive scientist, medical writer and novelist. Yes, she is related to H. Rider Haggard, the author of SHE and KING SOLOMONS’S MINES. (H. Rider Haggard was a younger brother of the author’s great-grandfather.) Cynthia Sally Haggard is a member of the Historical Novel Society. You can visit her website at: 
Phillip A. Ellis is a freelance critic, poet and scholar, and his poetry collection, The Flayed Man, has been published by Gothic Press. Gothic Press will also edit a collection of essays on Ramsey Campbell, that he is editing with Gary William Crawford.
Cher: I was able to keep both novellas’ titles. On the covers, I had the final say, but I only had two choices. Basically, the artist created one, and then, with my feedback, created a second. In both cases, I loved the second cover. I’m very impressed with both. Both titles and covers are very important for the sale of a book. These are the first two things most readers see. The next two important factors are the back blurb and the first few pages (sometimes paragraphs).
A soft breeze stirred the curtains. The tick-tock of the old grandfather clock magnified, building to a roar. Then, an eerie silence settled over the room, voiding Constance’s moment of anticipation. Dropping her shoulders, she blew out the candles and shuffled toward the kitchen.
Cher Green, born in Tennessee, lives in South Carolina with her significant other and her two feline companions. She writes in many genres, spanning from horror to romance, usually with a touch of paranormal.
Cindy is a first year student in Journalism.
With over thirty publications, Karina Kantas doesn’t just want to be known as an author of exciting motorcycle fiction, so she continues expanding her genre writing. She is also the owner and editor of 
AJ Kirby is the award-winning author of five novels (Paint this town Red, 2012; Perfect World, 2011; Bully, 2009; The Magpie Trap, 2008; When Elephants Walk through the Gorbals, 2007), two novellas (The Black Book, 2011; and Call of the Sea, 2010), one novelette (Bed Peace, 2011) and over forty published short stories. He is also a sportswriter for the Professional Footballers’ Association and a reviewer for The Short Review and The New York Journal of Books. He will return with more flash fiction on the Flash Fiction Fridays page on 13th April then 25th May. 
Kim: No, no, thank you for having me. I sometimes still feel a bit strange about people actually asking me if they can interview me (I wonder “me? Why me? Am I famous? Do I have something interesting to say?”) And then I quiver in my boots about whether anybody actually reads what I wrote.
Morgen: Bruce Moore (I’m interviewing him next Saturday 
then record my podcast (every other week, today’s is four short stories) and 
Steve, who writes under his full name, Stephen L Wright, was born in Yorkshire, England; his father was a Methodist minister, so the family also lived in Derby and Kingston upon Hull. He left school at 18 and went to college to train as a teacher.
A former newspaper journalist, Stephen Booth is the creator of two young Derbyshire police detectives, DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry, who have so far appeared in 11 crime novels, all set in England’s beautiful and atmospheric Peak District. The Cooper & Fry series has won awards on both sides of the Atlantic, and Detective Constable Cooper has been a finalist for the Sherlock Award for the Best Detective created by a British author. In 2003 the Crime Writers’ Association presented Stephen with the Dagger in the Library Award for “the author whose books have given readers most pleasure”. The novels are sold all around the world, with translations in 15 languages, and are currently in development as a TV series. The most recent title is 
Mary Ellen: I am in love with the natural world in which I live. I am a Master Gardener, herbalist and food safety educator, published author and photographer, and executive director of Happy Tonics, Inc., a non-profit 501 (c) (3) environmental education organization and public charity. I have lived and worked around the United States and traveled to Europe and Mexico. I lived in South America for several years in the 1970s, where I worked with indigenous people, learned enthnobotany, and followed butterflies.
Mary Ellen: My publisher, Lindy Casey, Salt of the Earth Press, is planning on making My Name is Butterfly available as an eBook. She loves Kindle and believes that color will be next stage of development for Kindle. My book is illustrated in color. I myself prefer books. There is something tactile in being able to check one’s sources using a pencil mark to acknowledge a source. I do so much research with a dwindling memory; I find it necessary to put my hands on my work. Tactile, auditory, and visual are my preferred learning styles.
Leila: Ciao Morgen. I’m based in Rome, where I work for the University Roma Tre and as a freelance journalist. From 1991 to 2000 I lived and studied in Vienna, commuting between Austria and Slovakia. At the moment I’m finishing my Ph.D. in Pre-Revolutionary Russian history, therefore I often travel to Russia, especially Sankt Petersburg and Chelyabinsk (Urals Region), where I’m visiting professor at the University. In my opinion writing is an attitude, something in our DNA, but the assumption of being a good writer is being a “bookworm”; I could read a book a day when I was a child. My motto was: “A book a day keeps the doctor away”. It has worked indeed… now that I have less time to read, I get the flu more easily than before.
Leila: Yes, I do have a favourite character, Giulio Uberti, the main male character of Forbidden to think in colours, because this enfant terrible of the Roman high bourgeoisie synthesizes virtues and vices of three exceptional men I know: a lighting designer, an archaeologist and a movie director. I would choose Carolina Bang (Balada triste de trompeta, 2010) and Michael Stuhlbarg (A serious man, 2009), or Keira Knightley and Scott Speedman.
Leila Tavi was born in Rome; she graduated in Philology, then in Political Sciences. She has lived for ten years in Austria and Slovakia, observing how Eastern European totalitarian States collapsed and turned into democracies. Since 2008 she has been working as a freelance journalist; she is a Ph.D. candidate in Russian History and holds seminars in cultural and diplomatic relations between Pre-Unitarian Italian States and Russia at the Sankt-Petersburg State University and the Chelyabinsk State University. She is a member of “100 Autori per il Cinema”, which includes directors such as Bellocchio, Sorrentino, Virzì…; she is also a member of the Association “Donne di carta” (Paper Women), where she is a ‘Book-Person’ who learns by heart an excerpt of a famous novel and repeats it to other people. This group drafted a Reading Bill of Rights, which was awarded by President Giorgio Napolitano. Forbidden to Think in Colours is her second novel.
I found this the most difficult to achieve with the 
Tip: sub-plots can be carried in the illustrations alone. See for instance the hysterical antics of the sheep in David and the Hairy Beast and David and the Kingmaker. The majority of these were thought up by the illustrator and not written into the original text.
Fiona Veitch Smith writes fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. She also writes for stage and screen and has been working on adapting the Myro the Microlight books for an animated series. She hopes David and the Hairy Beast will also make it to the screen one day. Her website is 
Born in Milwaukee, educated at Brandeis and later at the Timothy Leary commune in Millbrook, NY, Theodore P. Druch, Ted to his friends, spent most of his life in trivial pursuits – like making a living. After chucking it all and traveling around the world for ten years like a dandelion seed on the wind, he settled in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. He is an active member of the Puerto Vallarta Writer’s Group, and conducts a weekly workshop for serious authors. In the last two years, Ted has published four full-length non-fiction e-books, and is currently working on his first novel, a historical fantasy of 1492 called King David’s Harp. He fully expects it to be a blockbusting best-seller, filled as it is with pirates, adventurers, corrupt popes and priests, several heroes and heroines, and a search for clues to the hiding place of the harp of King David, the recovery of which might bring about the return of the Messiah.
Ken: Hello. My name is Ken Magee and I’m an… author.
Ken: A bit of both really. I have the basic plot in my head, but I have no idea how the characters will navigate through the various twists and turns. And in Dark Tidings, there were a few shocks which came right out of the blue… even I wasn’t expecting them. Also, the humour definitely comes during the writing and again, I was surprised by a lot of it… I often found myself laughing out loud as I wrote.
Marina: Aha, the truth comes out, but I’m laughing as I write. Marina Martindale is a pseudonym. I’ve written and published a series of historical novels for young readers under my real name, and I’ve built my brand as a children’s book author. However, I’ve wanted to write more adult material and branch out into the romance genre for sometime now. The problem was that readers in this genre expect some steamy, if not somewhat graphic love scenes. Now granted, I’m not writing erotica, but some of the material presented in my new novel, 
Just like Gillian Matthews, the heroine in her debut romance novel, “The Reunion”, Marina Martindale began her career as a graphic designer and artist. Over time, however, she discovered that writing was her true life’s passion. In The Reunion, Martindale draws her inspiration from her own life. The story itself, however, is fiction.
Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of story mapping is brought to you by multi-genre writer and 
Nancy Ellen Dodd
Rob: Only as eBooks, actually. I tried a long time ago to solicit an agent and get Winns and Losses into print but it just wasn’t happening. Now that eBooks are becoming more prevalent, I took the opportunity to put my novel out there. I went through 
Rob Sheehy lives in Wisconsin with his wife and daughter. By day he is a mild-mannered Information Technology Consultant and by night enjoys writing novels that combine his love of sports with his deep faith in Jesus Christ. Winns and Losses is the first of what he hopes will be many more such novels.
Nancy: I classify my novels as romance / suspense usually. I enjoy reading a variety of genres but I don’t venture into writing some because I don’t feel I have enough knowledge to do so – like adventure, war and sci-fi. The exception to that is my first published short novel – Furred & Feathered Friends: Katrina Castaways. Since the animal characters speak to one another and are the main focus of the book, I think of it as a fantasy.
Nancy: I’m working on a book called The Witness Wore Fur. This title is my publisher’s brainchild and I love it. It’s a romance / suspense about a dog – a black and white pointer – a widow and a police detective. It [Witness] will be published this spring [2012]. Some of my readers have fallen in love with the characters in Furred and Feathered Friends: Katrina Castaways, so I’m also working on a sequel.
Nancy: I’m hopeless as a poet. I admit to a problem with short stories because I get so caught up in a story it’s difficult to keep it short. Furred & Feathered Friends is by far the shortest novel I’ve ever written, at a little over 14,000 words. I mentioned before that my short story “The Dog and the Nike” is appearing soon in the anthology That One Left Shoe. I’ve submitted three short pieces (I think they would be considered fictionalized memoirs) for another anthology but I haven’t heard from the publisher yet. I also submitted a short story to a new magazine and I’m waiting to hear about that as well. Novels are definitely my “thing”. As for non-fiction, I’m also working on my memoirs although I’ve decided not to try and put everything in one volume.
