Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-sixth, is of children’s writer Sarahjane Funnell. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Sarahjane Funnell is a children’s picture book author and also full time PR Officer for Lush Cosmetics.
She currently writes the Phillipa series of picture books and has previously had stories Princess Rose and the Royal Tea Castle, published in the children’s magical anthology A Pocketful of Moon Dust by Rebel Books, along with an independent YA fantasy ebook, Blake.
Phillipa is a Trademarked series of picture books by Sarahjane Funnell published by Gibson Publishing.
The first title in the series is Phillipa Knickerbocker Glory and the Ice Cream Castle, along with her new book Phillipa Fairy Cake and the Secret Pets’ Tea Party.
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And now from the author herself:
So it’s been about 18 months since my last post on Morgen Bailey’s Writing Blog and it’s been a busy year and a half at that. My last post coincided with the launch of my debut picture book Phillipa Knickerbocker Glory and the Ice Cream Castle, independently published with Gibson Publishing (March 2012).
Now, after running over 30 children’s book events with my first book, alongside working full-time as a beauty press officer for ethical cosmetics brand Lush, I am now launching my second book in the Trademarked Phillipa series, Phillipa Fairy Cake and the Secret Pets’ Tea Party.
Producing two picture books in less than two years is no mean feat. It takes an unbelievable amount of energy, passion, will power and determination. From writing the initial story, through to copy editing, getting the ball rolling again with the chosen publisher and sourcing and commissioning an available illustrator, the process has taken almost 9 months from start to finish (which is an incredibly fast turn around compared with traditional publishing).
Though things may be stressful at times juggling dual careers, directing all 32 pages of the book as well as organising design and print schedules, the overall outcome of having a second book to call your own, far outweighs any sleepless nights suffered.
The decision to publish a second book within 18 months of the first was always in my publishing plan. The first title even makes reference to the second book on the last page where it mentions ‘…Look out for Phillipa Fairy Cake.’ My reasoning for this quick turn around being with picture books, particularly if you are planning a series, it’s important to capture your audience while they are still within the relevant age range for your books. This really helps to establish a loyal following of readers by maintaining their interests with new material. It also shows you are serious about your career as a professional writer.
My first book Phillipa Knickerbocker Glory, launched at Waterstones Hastings during March 2013. This was the nearest bookshop to where the title was published in East Sussex. With the launch of my second title with the same publisher, I wanted to run the second book’s launch again with the same shop. The Phillipa Fairy Cake and the Secret Pets’ Tea Party launch took place on Saturday 15th June and the very talented Hastings team put together a wonderful event with a beautiful display of both book titles side by side. I then added some personal touches including character cut outs from the book and some imitation grass to emphasise the garden tea party theme.
During the event, many customers who had come along to the launch of my first book also came along to this new launch. These repeat customers were delighted to find there was another Phillipa book, some of which had bought the first book as a Christmas present and others mentioned they had loved the first book so much they were incredibly delighted to see a second title to add to their collection.
As an author, being told by readers that your book is ‘their child’s favourite story’ and ‘how much they love reading it’ makes writing all the more special knowing your work makes someone happy and captures their imagination.
The team at Hastings Waterstones including Lizzie, Laura and Linda, are absolutely lovely and so supportive – especially with the book being a local title, and that really matters to an author too – knowing you have the support of book experts behind you too.
So, my advice to anyone wondering whether to take that first or second step into the independent publishing market would be, as long as you have the determination, a clear vision of your goal, you’ve sufficiently tested your readership and have a plan in terms of both time and finance to take you there, then go for it. Not only is it a huge achievement having your first or second book in print or ebook format, you are very likely to have some very happy, new and loyal readers to share it with too!
**
If you would like to find out more information on the Phillipa Series please visit @PhillipaBooks and www.phillipaknickerbockerglory.co.uk and find Sarahjane @Sarahjanestyle
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
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Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-fifth, is of YA / fantasy / mystery T J Perkins. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights. I’m short of them so yours could go live in the next few days!
TJ Perkins is a gifted and well-respected award-winning author in the mystery / suspense and fantasy genre. Her short stories for young readers have appeared in the Ohio State 6th Grade Proficiency Test Preparation Book, Kid’s Highway Magazine, and Webzine ‘New Works Review,’ just to name a few. She’s placed four times in the CNW / FFWA chapter book competition. Her short story of light horror for tweens, The Midnight Watch, was publication Oct 2007 by Demon Minds Magazine. Her self-publishing achievements are being greatly recognized and TJ is also conducting speaking engagements at colleges and libraries, offering advice to others.
Finished works of her young reader’s chapter books are entitled: The Fire and the Falcon (which won two chapter book awards), Wound Too Tight, Mystery of the Attic, and On Forbidden Ground. Published books in the Kim & Kelly Mystery Series include: Fantasies Are Murder, The Secret in Phantom Forest, Trade Secret, Image in the Tapestry (which won a chapter book award) and In the Grand Scheme of Things (all with GumShoe Press 2006).
Mystery of the Attic was made into a play by the Café Theater in NJ, Oct. 2005. The storyline of this book will be the basis for a new and exciting interactive family amusement park ride currently in the hands of dark ride manufacturer Alterface.
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And now from the author herself:
As I’ve gotten older I’ve noticed that my writing has matured, as well. Those of you who have written for years and years may have noticed the same with your stories. The concepts and ideas you started off with may have been good back then, but as our reader’s thoughts and views evolve so does their demand for the next big story idea that’ll move them.
With my new five book series Shadow Legacy, the concept and style has a flow and direction all its own, blooming with thoughts and beliefs I never before would’ve used. What started off as a story for young adults, has become a series for teens and older people – chock full of battles, death, reawakening, villains welding unusual dark magic, demons, trolls and a host of other magical / spiritual beings.
Art of the Ninja: Earth and Power of the Ninja: Fire is available and soon to join them in June 2013 will be book 3 Heart of the Ninja: Water. Each book assigned an element based on the hero’s journey, his trials, battles, failures and accomplishments. Each cover based on the chosen character and their animal fighting style and spirit energy.
Modern day teen assassins trained in the way of the ninja, Shadow Legacy is pulsing with Zen, Tao, Hindu and new age powers and beliefs. Dive in, take a chance on an all new cross-genre of fantasy that reads like a good manga and follow the legacy…
**
You can find more about TJ and her writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
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Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-fourth, is of YA / fantasy / paranormal novelist and interviewee L Filloon. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
L. Filloon was born in Leone, American Samoa. At a young age her family relocated to Hawaii and settled on Oahu. In 1977, her father once again relocated the family, this time to San Diego, eventually making National City, California their home. Although she started writing during her junior high school years, it wasn’t until late 2011 that she self-published her first book, The Binding; the first in The Velesi Trilogy. She followed with Book 2, The Drifting, and completing out the trilogy with The Whispering which will be available on Amazon.com for Kindle on July 27, 2013.
Now living in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her significant other for the past eighteen years, they live a quiet life away from the Strip with two felines named Ralph the Mouth and Princess Coby (who family and close friends are certain Cessa was based on). Ms. Filloon has a daughter also living in Sin City who recently got married. Despite her daughter and new husband’s plans to wait on staring a family, Ms. Filloon is excited about the prospect of having grandchildren – which she has already warned the young couple she will spoil until the cows come home. Currently, Ms. Filloon owns no cows and has no plans to own any in the near future.
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And now from the author herself:
There have been times when I would start on a story, get really into it and then become distracted by my everyday life; I would put it away and forget about it. There have been many times I have sat in front of this very screen, staring at it for hours before a single sentence is created. It’s a tough gig, I tell you.
Several times I wanted to quit on The Binding (Book 1 of The Velesi Trilogy), but continue to find myself sticking with it. It was my first completed novel that I self-published in December 2011. I was so happy and ecstatic, that I couldn’t feel my feet for about an hour. Unfortunately, once the euphoria passed, I was thrown back to the old familiar world of self-doubt and worry. I was worried that no one would even care to read what took me months to put into words.
It was tough in the beginning because I was clueless of what I needed to do to market my first novel. I did learn a valuable lesson and if I ever give one advice to new authors, it is this: Get an editor. Seriously, it will save you such headaches, heartache and keep you from going ninja on every reviewer who gave you a not so nice review. By the way, good or bad, reviews are only an opinion – don’t let it keep you from writing. You can only improve and become a better writer, but ONLY if you stick with it and don’t let opinions not worthy of you to get under your skin. Toughen up…life is too short not to live it your way and be happy doing it.
But, yes, it was all trial and error with the first book, and yes, people did pick it up and read The Binding (after a good thrashing from my editor – love her). And I have just completed book 3 and looking forward to a few new projects.
And with that said, I am eager to start on my new book, The 7th Relic, after the release of Book 3 of The Velesi Trilogy: The Whispering. It’s an adventure that has been playing in my head for the past year. Here is the blurb for The 7th Relic:
The fires of Earth are dying. The ancient Keeper of the Flame is blind and weary. She waits for the Light to reignite the Flame of Life and heal her energy to remain as Keeper. But the Light was kidnapped at birth and marked by the ancient Skytes. Her memories of who she truly is are lost to her through their cruel methods.
Grace is seventeen and on the brink of graduating from high school, not that anyone would notice. Her mother, an abusive alcoholic, who, for reasons Grace could never understand and had given up trying, hates her. The kids from her school seem to ignore her, giving her a wide berth when she passes by. Her teachers are either bothered by her looks and withdrawn attitude, or love her for her artistic and brilliant artwork. But even the ones who are impressed keep their distance. All Grace dreams of is to win the San Diego Museum Art contest and receive a full scholarship for one of the most prestigious art programs in France. It is through this drive to win that brings her face to face with an ancient Skytes prince and the Protector standing between them, Andrew Teo.
Andrew must get Grace to the Keeper before time runs out. But in order for her to reignite the Flame, she needs seven relics that will create the means to do it. She and Andrew must depend on their small group of friends, allies and each other if they intend to keep Earth’s fires burning.
The 7th Relic – Coming Fall 2014
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You can find more about Ms Filloon and her writing via…
and more about her latest book, The Whispering…
Tharin and Lily find themselves back in Pathen in search of Julia and the key to Eirrell, but old foes and new ones are in close pursuit. Adding to their plight, all doorways to Velesi have been closed.
Forced to discover a way back to their realm, the group finds help from new friends and those who once stood against them are now allies. To make matters worse, a betrayal causes the door to the UnderRealm to open, allowing demons and monsters once imprisoned to roam the realm freely.
Time is of the essence as there are only two Ancients left while Ka grows weaker, struggling to hold the realm together. It is up to Tharin and Lily to find the doorway to Eirrell, call the Unnamed Sidhe and save Velesi.
Journey back to Velesi and join Tharin, Lily, Tolan, Julia, Alorn, Mellis, Ziri and Cessa to save the realm and maybe have a wedding… or two, but then again, it is Velesi… so maybe not.
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, L Filloon, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Welcome to the six hundred and eighty-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with short story writer and The Casket host Joanna Sterling. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Joanna. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Joanna: I was born in London and have lived here most of my life. I would consider myself a Londoner. I took up writing after early retirement. But I have always told stories and as a child had a fertile imagination.
Morgen: I went the other way; I early retired last March (a few months before my 45th birthday) to write full-time and can’t see me ever having a proper job, although I’ll be teaching creative writing for my local council’s adult learning from January so that still isn’t ‘work’ to me. 
You predominantly write short stories (my first love), did you pick them or did they pick you?
Joanna: I think they picked me. I’m comfortable writing short stories and I enjoy the discipline they impose. There is a craft involved in their construction no matter how concise the story.
Morgen: Absolutely. I started off writing short stories having ‘discovered’ creative writing on an evening course eight years ago and despite having written seven novels, they will always be my first love and would ‘win’ if I had to choose between the two formats. Is there a particular market you aim for when writing stories for publication?
Joanna: Generally I would say my stories are aimed at a female market, but not exclusively.
Morgen: Are there any publications you can recommend for short stories (submissions and reading)?
Joanna: I regularly read Mslexia and the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthologies. Also One Story which comes from America and arrives once a month. A single story in a slim booklet that can be slipped into a bag or pocket.
Morgen: I subscribe to all the writing magazines, including Mslexia, and recommend writers get at least one of them as it does bring the writing community into your home. I’m intrigued by ‘One Story’. I was going to add it to http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/submissions-flash-fiction-short-stories but then found out it’s already there. Your The Casket site is listed under both categories too. Why do you think short stories are so hard done by (with most readers going for novels)?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 5pm fiction, adult learning, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, early retirement, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, evening course, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fertile imagination, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Joanna Sterling, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, Mslexia, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, The Casket, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-third, is of children’s and self-help author Stefan Bolz. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Stefan wanted to write since he was the tender age of seventeen, but his wild youth and turbulent teens pulled him away from writing even though the wish to write never completely left him.
Almost three decades later, his secret passion has finally caught up with him when he accidentally wrote a novel.
“Accidentally?” you might ask, and rightfully so. Yes. Accidentally.
*
And now from the author himself:
It all started out in a sandbox. This may or may not be a good place to start a novel but in my case it really worked out. You should try it sometime. I have been going to my therapist Julie for a few years now. She has been very helpful through some rough patches here and there. Part of her work includes a sandbox in the corner of her practice. Here’s how this works: Behind the sandbox there is a wall filled with shelves on which you can find pretty much anything, from small figurines to action figures to items like little palm trees, dragons, motor cycles, cowboys, dogs, helicopters, stones, rocks, pieces of wood, train cars, etc. I’d usually pick out some of the items at random, the task being not to think too much about which ones to take and then place them into the sand box. So, I took some of the objects from the shelf and placed them in the sand box. Here and there I pushed the sand to one side, again without thinking much about it. Once I was done, we looked at it together and as we always do, Julie asked me what I saw. It usually makes sense while I look at the landscape as to which of the figurines I am, what’s going on in the box and therefore in my life at that moment, etc.
Not this time. I had no clue what I was looking at. There was a rooster, red and orange colored; there was a wolf, a horse, a Pegasus, a frog, a dragon and, stuck into the sand on the left side of the box, three feathers. That was all. I told Julie that I had no idea what it meant, what it was or what to make of it. All I said was that it sure looks like it would make a nice little fable: The rooster sets out on a journey. On his way, he picks up friends like the wolf and the horse. Then they encounter a Pegasus and a dragon. There is a frog in there somewhere. And in the end they find the three feathers. Nothing to write home about. Or so I thought.
I left Julie, not disappointed but feeling kind of neutral with the sense that nothing had really happened in there. Sometimes a session stays with me for days. Again, not this one. I forgot all about it for a while. Then one morning I thought I’d better write it down before I forget. That was more out of habit as I usually write down what happens during the sessions. So I began with, “Once upon a time there was a rooster who lived on a farm on the Eastern shore…” I stopped at the end of chapter one, I think. I couldn’t believe the force with which the story made itself known to me. I truly felt like a scribe more than an author. Close to none of it came from my conscious mind. It was as if I discovered for myself, and for the first time, what had happened.
Like an archaeologist finding an ancient city under the dessert sand. The Three Feathers was there. Complete and pretty much ready to come through. My duty was only in faithfully writing it all down. There was only a minuscule and insignificant amount of thinking about plot, characters and the story itself on my part. Besides The Three Feathers, there is one other book out already – a spiritual companion to The Three Feathers, called The Dawning of the True Self. Three more books are in the works: A prequel named The Second Searcher, a sequel, The Fourth Sage and the continuation of that one, The Forgotten Future. I have had a couple of author days and one coming up at a local school with 308 kids. Never underestimate the power of playing in the sand.
**
You can find more about Stefan and his writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, Stefan Bolz, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-second, is of Tony Schmacher. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Tony Schumacher is a writer, author, broadcaster, and stand-up comedian. His regular column for the Liverpool and Manchester Confidential magazines “Rear View Mirror” has recently been compiled into a book (link below).
Tony has written for The Guardian newspaper and recently worked on their Reading the Riots project to investigate the causes of the 2011 disturbances in the UK. As a former Police officer, Tony can often be found wandering the lanes near his home, with his dog Boo, pretending to give out parking tickets and direct traffic. And at other times, he spends his time as a regular guest on Liverpool’s City Talk FM radio station, and has also presented several pieces on the BBC TV’s Politics Show.
*
And now from the author himself:
About six years ago my life was going swimmingly. I had the lot. I had the wife, the son, the house, the career, the car and even the trendy dog.
Today? Well I haven’t got the house, the car, the job, the son, or the career, even my poor old dog died last year, I’m slowly turning into a real life country and western song.
Let me explain; I was a Policeman. I wasn’t an ordinary policeman, I was the type who did a bit of stand up comedy on the side. My life was filled basically with moments of fear, fighting, arguing and adrenaline, and that was just the comedy.
In the police I was a response officer, I basically used to drive around Liverpool with blue lights flashing answering 999 calls. I’ve kicked in more doors than Jack Regan and turned over more bodies than Quincy. It was messy, bloody, dangerous and at times, desperate. And I loved it.
I loved my colleagues, I loved the charging around shouting, I loved the challenge and I loved the thrills. I loved my life.
I honestly used to pull up at my house of a night, in my quiet cul-de-sac, and sit for moment and think about how lucky I was. I know that sounds crazy when you say it out loud, but I did. I was that happy.
Or at least I thought I was.
Six years later, sitting here writing this, it seems like someone else’s life I’m writing about, I’m not sure of I’d recognise the bloke who used sit smugly in his car looking at his house with his gorgeous wife waving through the window. To be honest, if I met him, I’d probably think he was a bit of a kn*b.
That bloke’s life finally fell apart when he found out his son wasn’t his. In fairness, although he’d not noticed it, his life had been in trouble for a while but, like a carrier bag that splits at the bottom and drops your spuds on the floor all at once, I/he just hadn’t noticed it going.
I’ll not bore you with the details, that’s another story for another day but, six months after my carrier bag split, I found myself without a job (never write a resignation letter when you are crying) and sitting in a rented house I couldn’t afford with a designer dog that was, quite frankly, disappointed in me.
I had to do something, so when a mate suggested getting a cab drivers licence to “tide you over till you get your head straight” I decided to do that, if only to get out of the house that had become a prison, and to start talking to people again.
It was the best thing I’ve ever done. Because amongst the drunks, the drug addicts, the lager, the lovers, the lost and the lonely… I found myself.
It happened at about four am, sitting in a park, eating a lonely service station sandwich and staring at a cat getting beat up by a bird, that I decided to write.
And that cat, and that bird, led to my book Rear View Mirror being released about two weeks ago for the Amazon Kindle and if I ever meet them again I’ll shake them by the paw/claw.
I’d never written anything before, so I was surprised at how good I felt when I wrote that first story. I didn’t just feel happy, I felt different, like something had happened in my head and my heart, like a place had been found and that I’d come home. I remember reading it a few times and smiling to myself. I even printed it off and stuck it by my bed to read when I woke up, just in case in the morning, after the shine had worn off, I found it was rubbish. I’ve still got that original story upstairs, and I still don’t think it’s rubbish. I created a blog, and posted the story up there, and told what remained of my friends on Facebook. Some of them read it, a few of them commented, and I felt good for the first time in years, so I wrote another one, and another one, and another one.
And I felt better; little by little, I felt better.
A few months later a lady got in the cab and we chatted and she told me she edited a local magazine. I told her I wrote a blog about the cab and she promised to read it. I didn’t believe her. A few weeks later I got an email, and she said some nice things and offered me a column in the magazine and said she would pay me for the stories.
I still didn’t believe her, but it turned out she was telling the truth. I’d become a writer, and I was happier than I’d been in years, and it wasn’t money, it wasn’t a house and it wasn’t a car that was making me happy… it was my heart.
Which was finally fixed.
**
What a great story. Thank you, Tony.
You can find more about Tony and his writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, Tony Schumacher, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-first, is of mystery novelist and guest blogger Richard Brawer. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
After graduating the University of Florida and a six-month basic training tour in the National Guard, Richard started his working life as a salesman for a New York City textile printer catering to the linen and curtain trade. Becoming an author was something that never crossed his mind. However he liked to read. He commuted by train an hour and thirty minutes and read newspapers in the morning and books during the evening commute. His favorite genres were mysteries and historical fiction.
The company he worked for went out of business in 1973. Despite having two daughters aged three and six, he and his wife made a decision to take a gamble and opened a linen and curtain store. With reading ingrained in his daily life, Richard managed to find time to continue.
Always having a vivid imagination Richard would occasionally come across a newspaper article that would cause him to wonder, what would happen if―? Working 60 to 70 hours a week at his new business, he didn’t do anything with his inquisitiveness until he read a horrendous article about a child that was born with a brain impairment and the father refused to take him home from the hospital.
The father thought he could return the child like a “spoiled jar of mayonnaise” he bought in a store. The nurses were outraged and their disgust was quoted in the article. That’s when Richard’s imagination took over and he asked himself, “What if the child was misdiagnosed?”
He took that thought and began making notes. The notes turned into paragraphs and the paragraphs into chapters. Thus his first mystery, The Nurse Wore Black was born.
*
And now from the author himself…
So now I had a book, but what to do with it? Being a complete novice, I did the usual things most new authors do, I sent out query letters to agents and received a stack of rejection letters.
Lamenting my woes to a friend, I learned of a local micro publisher that specialized in publishing books about nurses. Excited, instead of writing a query letter I dropped into their office. They agreed to look at my manuscript. Two weeks later they said they would publish my book. Wow!
I went on to write two more books with the same detective, Diamonds are for Stealing and Murder on the Links. My first publisher was highly specialized and did not want those books, but I found another micro publisher that specialized in mysteries that did. Those three early books in my career ran their course and I reacquired the rights, put them together in one volume I titled, Murder at the Jersey Shore and posted the three book series on Amazon’s Kindle. (I re-titled The Nurse Wore Black to Secrets can be Deadly. The other two tiles in the three-book volume remain the same.)
As I said, I also liked to read historical fiction. My grandparents had immigrated to Paterson, New Jersey in the 1890s. I was born there, but my family moved to the Jersey Shore when I was twelve. I knew little about Paterson except it was America’s first industrial city and the home of the silk industry in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. When I read an article in the newspaper that The Passaic County Historical Society was giving a lecture on Paterson and tour of the historical district I decided to attend.
As I listened to the lectures I started thinking about a story line, but the lectures only gave me an overall picture of the era. Luckily I had a partner in my store, my understanding wife, and she didn’t mind my sneaking out a day here and there to go to the Paterson library to do research. In 2006 I finished Silk Legacy. Unfortunately I could not find a publisher but I was convinced I had written a great book so I published it myself. You may call it ego, but based on the hugely positive reviews and the continuing sales, I guess I was right to take the gamble and self publish.
In December 2012 L & L Dreamspell also published my latest novel, Keiretsu, another suspense novel.In 2010 I had written my first suspense novel, Beyond Guilty, and found a wonderful mid-sized publisher, L & L Dreamspell that agreed to publish it. The story is about a woman whom is falsely convicted of murder and sentenced to death. She escapes from death row and battles the forces chasing her to find the evidence to prove her innocence.
Toshio Nagoya, the ultra-nationalist CEO of Japan’s largest Keiretsu plots to build nuclear weapons to protect his country from a menacing China. Using his cousin, John Nagoya, a lawyer and second generation Japanese-American, they build a large political action committee to thwart the expected United Sates’ cease-and-desist demands.
That’s the catalyst that draws three families, Toshio’s, John’s and Senator Morrison’s, intertwined by blood and marriage into conflict with each other, and how conspiracy, lust, infidelity, revenge, betrayal and murder destroy those families.
I wasn’t planning to write a political dissertation, rather a conspiracy novel with dynamic characters, but as it turned out, Keiretsu is now not only a novel with great characters, but is, as the cliché says―ripped from the headlines.
A headline in May 2, 2013 “The Wall Street Journal” read
“Japan Nuclear Plan Draws U.S. Ire.”
Quoting from the article: “Japan is preparing to start up a massive nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant over the objections of the administration…The Rokkasho reprocessing facility is capable of producing nine tons of weapons-usable plutonium annually, enough to build 2000 bombs.”
The article goes on to say how the administration objects to this reprocessing. “Allowing Japan to acquire large amounts of plutonium without clear prospects for a plutonium-use plan is a bad example for the rest of the world.”
If you are thinking about becoming an author, I suggest that although books on writing and writing courses are helpful, the most important writing lessons come from reading. If you read books with the idea of becoming a writer, then you will consciously start analyzing why you like or dislike a book.
For me, the biggest reason I like a book is because it has characters in conflict. That is the one thread that runs through all my books. It is the suspense as to how conflicted characters will solve their problems that keeps me turning the pages.
**
You can find more about Richard and his writing at:
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixtieth, is of non-fiction author Carol A Butler. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Carol A Butler leads an interesting life. Her day job is as a psychoanalyst and mediator in private practice in Manhattan, providing therapy for adults and couples and mediating divorces as well as family and business disputes. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Clinical Supervisor at NYU in the Department of Applied Psychology, and a docent at the American Museum of Natural History.
After she completed her training as a mediator, she teamed up with a fellow trainee to try to generate some business. They offered a one-day course at NYU’s School of Continuing Education, but not enough people signed up for the course and it was cancelled– but a literary agent saw the course blurb and persuaded them to write a book.
The Divorce Mediation Answer Book was published by Kodansha America in 1999.
On a sunny summer Sunday afternoon in 2004, she was volunteering at an event in Central Park, and she found herself in a tent full of butterflies…and she was hooked. She volunteered that evening to work in the American Museum of Natural History’s butterfly vivarium, and she can be found there on Friday afternoons.
Her interest grew as she learned more in order to answer the questions posed by visitors, and she began photographing butterflies in the vivarium and in the field. She asked a colleague to join her in writing a book about butterflies and moths, and she found a new agent by searching online (the first one had quit the business).
Do Butterflies Bite? was published by Rutgers University Press in 2008, followed by Do Bats Drink Blood?, Why Do Bees Buzz?, Do Hummingbirds Hum?, and How Fast Can a Falcon Dive? For each book she located an expert on that animal to serve as her co-author so she would have guidance and credibility for the text.
She also co-authored a book on salt marshes, Salt Marshes: A Natural and Unnatural History, and her most recent book, Knowing Horses, was published in 2012 by Storey Press. Except for the salt marsh book, her books are written in question and answer format, first giving a direct answer to a wide range of questions and then following most answers with a sophisticated discussion of the topic and the latest relevant research.
*
And now from the author herself…
I am always curious about new challenges, and I find that things develop when I am active and enthusiastic. My life, as is true for many people, is a story of one thing leading to another and another, some interesting and some not. I grew up in the Bronx, and I was coerced to attend the Bronx High School of Science. I discovered that I enjoyed it, and I later married my high school sweetheart and had two children. I majored in music as an undergraduate because I liked it and had no other clear direction. After college, inspired by a terrific philosophy professor, I began a Master’s degree in philosophy but realized quickly that it was a wrong turn. After another detour of six-months at an actuarial firm, I started working at the New York State Employment Service as an interviewer. I said yes to every special project, ended up working with men coming out of jail, which led to a job at a residential treatment center that sent me back to school for my MA. I was supervised there by a psychoanalyst, and I continued on for my Ph.D. while completing psychoanalytic training.
Working at AMNH, I made contacts that were invaluable in writing the natural science books, and it also led to being asked to co-host an internet radio program– The Naturalist on the Heritage Radio Network– that has been great fun. Archived programs can be found here: http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/programs/25-The-Naturalist. A few years ago, I responded to an inquiry and was hired to teach at the Harlem Family Institute, a psychoanalytic training facility. Along the way, I have edited and written for psychology and mediation publications, in print and online, and I have served (present and past) in various capacities on several boards.
Now I’m developing a proposal for my next book and looking forward to the next interesting opportunity.
You can learn more about Carol and her books at:
She is also on Facebook under her own name and as The Naturalist, and is working on connecting with Twitter.
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-ninth, is of thriller / suspense novelist Darcia Helle. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Darcia Helle lives in a fictional world with a husband who is sometimes real. Their house is ruled by spoiled dogs and cats and the occasional dust bunny.
Suspense, random blood spatter and mismatched socks consume Darcia’s days. She writes because the characters trespassing through her mind leave her no alternative. Only then are the voices free to haunt someone else’s mind.
Join Darcia in her fictional world. The characters await you.
*
And now from the author herself:
What would it take to push you over the edge?
This is the question I ask of all my characters when I begin writing a new book, most specifically with my Michael Sykora Novels. In fact, the series began with and is based on this premise.
Michael was an average guy, living a happy but uneventful life. Then his fiancé was raped and murdered by a repeat offender. In life, we all have a defining moment and this was his. Someone else’s act of rage pushed Michael over the edge.
The need for revenge sets Michael on a lifetime path of vengeance. While the words revenge and vengeance are often used interchangeably, there is a subtle but marked difference.
Revenge is a deeply personal act of retaliation through physical and / or psychological trauma or murder. Revenge is less about justice and much more about getting even, inflicting pain, and lashing out against the person or people that hurt you.
Vengeance is an act of retribution in which a person is attempting to achieve his / her idea of justice. The goal here is not so much to lessen your own pain by hurting the other person, but to achieve some sort of balance in a chaotic world.
One act of extreme violence forever changes the person Michael was. He was pushed over the edge of that figurative cliff, and there is no going back. His life becomes about the pursuit for vengeance. In his mind, he is balancing the scales of justice.
Many people won’t agree with Michael’s methods, believing our criminal justice system, while flawed, remains our best option. Others might wish they could do the things Michael does.
Wherever you think you stand, none of us can ever truly know until our own lives have been touched by this kind of violence. Hopefully, none of us will ever have to answer the question that now defines Michael Sykora’s life.
**
You can find more about Darcia via…
and her Michael Sykora novels:
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, Darcia Helle, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-eighth, is of multi-genre author Hayley M Coates. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Hayley Merelle Coates was born in Belmont, Australia in 1982. She grew up in the town of Port Macquarie, N.S.W with her half-brother, Guy and mother, Coleen.
An eighties child at heart, Hayley reminisces about Rainbow Bright, The Care Bears and Pippy Longstockings. An eccentric and dramatic child, Hayley remembers putting on dance and acting performances, as well as selling found items at her brick fence to passersby; such as shells, potpourri and mud pie.
In grade two, Hayley received her first writing award. It was for an entirely plagiarised story called, ‘Cowboy Jack and the Hoopsnake.’ From then on she started writing short stories, songs and poetry. At age nine she attempted to perform one of her songs, and was laughed at, causing her to put her pencil away for a while. Hayley focused on another love: dance. Ballet, Jazz and Modern, to name a few. Hayley performed many times over the years and still has a love of being on stage.
At the tender age of eleven, Hayley found Stephen King. At bedtime, she would creep out into the hallway where there was just enough light to read on. When the couch squeak signalled her mother’s movement, she would rush back to bed and hide under the covers. Tommyknockers, It and The Stand became some of her favourites. Hayley went on to fall obsessively in love with reading and spent hour upon hour in the clasps of an eclectic bunch of authors from R.L Stein and Paul Jennings to J.R.R. Tolkien. Hayley found her love of writing again, and began to imitate the greats. She soon found her own style. The many stories in her head were finally being put onto paper.
Hayley began drawing around the age of twelve and would look through tattoo books at her mother’s friend’s garage. She would copy the images until she began to form a style of her own; witches and warlocks, dragons and naked women were the tattoo trends of the nineties. Hayley was exposed to the biker scene having ties with the Port Macquarie Bandidos. It was a feast for the eyes, for a young girl obsessed with art.
At fourteen, Hayley found herself yearning for more. She was skipping school, and going down a most undesirable track. Rather than continue, Hayley decided to move away from her family and friends and come to the Gold Coast, in Queensland to stay with a friend of her mother’s. She attended Miami High School and never looked back (her family later followed her to the sunny Gold Coast – a wonderful change for them all).
Hayley was ‘unable’ to attend a tattoo parlour for her work experience placement in year eleven. It was a good thing, too, apparently, because her second choice was a primary school classroom. She fell in love with the students and realised her calling in life was to teach. Dabbling in all subjects from English and math, to dance, drama, art, science and history, she realised that she would be able to share her passions with primary school students.
It was her dream to attend university. She graduated high school in the year 2000 and was accepted into Griffith University. While completing her double degree in psychology and education, Hayley started writing her first novel, White Walls.
It was then, too, she found the drums! As if there wasn’t already enough going on, Hayley just couldn’t get enough out of life – always happy and enthusiastic, but eager and excited to learn more, and to do more. She bought a $100 third-hand drum kit and never looked back. She now drums with an African group called Imamba. They gig all over the Gold Coast.
Hayley’s first teaching job was at Biggera Waters Primary School. In her three years there, she worked with an amazing teaching partner, Brooke Curly, became a God-mother, and met and fell in love with her fiancé, Keith.
Standing on the oval, at Biggera Waters School, Hayley saw another of the many ‘signs’ that curbed her life. It was the fifth visit she’d had from a dragonfly in two days and as one swirled above her head, her teaching partner told her to Google them to find their meaning. It lead her to a site called dragonfly toys, which happened to be Waldorf / Steiner made. Having recalled the word ‘Steiner’ from University, she then found the site for the Silkwood Steiner School, who were looking for new teachers the following year.
‘You have to work there. You know that, don’t you?’ Her teaching partner saw that Hayley had found her calling. Perusing their philosophies, she found she was a Steiner teacher, without previously knowing what a Steiner teacher was.
She wandered up the golden path for a visit to the school, to find a place that held the arts in high regard, taught curricula through stories from around the world, studied all religions, was positioned in nature, used natural materials, and was immersed in spirituality. She started work there in 2009 and has been there ever since. Although the school is no longer Steiner, it holds the initial beauty and ideals that lead her there to begin with.
Her pseudo father (her half-brother’s dad), Eddie, fell ill. It came as a sad shock and she travelled with her brother to Newcastle to be with him. When Eddie passed, Hayley realised how very short life was. At his wake, several of his pub mates asked her if she’d published her novel yet. It was that day she knew she had to. Hayley had no idea Eddie had been so proud of her.
Hayley fell pregnant and while on maternity leave in 2012, was finally able to sit down and complete the novel that she’d been working on since attending university. The last few chapters of White Walls were finally complete and the editing process began – as she sat with her newborn daughter, Charlotte, strapped to her chest. Now, after many years, White Walls is complete and will launch June 20, 2013.
*
And now from the author herself:
The Journey of White Walls
I was actually sitting in an Abnormal Psychology lecture nine years ago (yes … nine years) when the idea for White Walls emerged. It’s been a long process! White Walls was a hobby, whereby I wrote between work, university, art and drumming.
Keeping in mind, I’d had no ‘official’ writing training – only school, a teaching and psychology degree – I then sent the manuscript to my amazing American friend, Carson Buckingham. She is a horror writer, editor, ex-journalist AND comedian (that woman is crazy talented) and she tore White Wall to shreds. It was the BEST learning experience of my life.
I was picked up by a small publisher here on the Gold Coast. After learning so much about the industry, I realised that I wasn’t happy with them. I was doing most of the work myself and that’s when I decided, I needed to do this on my own. White Walls is now being self-published. It’s definitely the right choice for me.
Behind the Book
I began to question the whole idea of ‘sanity’. Some people are free from social restraint – thinking and acting in ways completely unbound by what is expected of them. Often, they are misfits or outcast, and in extreme cases, ‘insane.’
Then, we – the ‘sane’ ones, eat harmful chemicals, let corporations and money rule, sit in front of television sets, take a panadol instead of looking at why we’re actually getting headaches, starve ourselves thin … and that’s just the beginning. Don’t even get me started about Government. We have our clear lines of right and wrong and everyone’s right and wrong are just so different.
That’s the intended, underlying meaning.
The characters and the storyline were fun to create, as you can imagine.
Family and Writing
I’ve been asked so many times; ‘how do you find the time to write?’
It’s not easy! I write at night, or whenever my ten-month-old, Charlotte takes a nap (like right now). It can be done, though! In fact, I appreciate my writing time even more. I try to write a few hundred words a day. I’ve written more since Charlotte was born, than ever before.
Future Projects
My next manuscript is called Robert Mumpkin Myer and the Wish Makers. It’s a rite of passage adventure novel about a young boy’s journey in a magical realm. I’m having even more fun with this one. Especially considering, as a teacher, I have many children that want to read one of my books … they most certainly won’t EVER be allowed to get their hands on White Walls. I just tell them that it’s for very ‘old’ adults – like drinking coffee or driving cars.
Robert Mumpkin Myer is for my daughter.
I have three anthologies on the go, too.
The first is a post-apocalyptic horror/sci fi, called Arid Lands – part of the Writers’ anarchy Anthology: www.lulu.com/shop/multiple-authors/writers-anarchy/paperback/product-21025783.html
The next is an Australian drama called, Bobby, Be Good.
Lastly, I am hoping to get into The Horror Society anthology this year with a short called, Hilary’s Shadow. Fingers crossed!
It’s important to always be sharpening your teeth, or pencil, so to speak.
I probably have my fingers in too many pies, but that’s normal for me.
Advice for Writers
Stop writing for peanuts, unless you think that’s all your worth. I know that sounds harsh, but I mean it. Here in Australia, $30 is enough for milk, bread and a packet of cigarettes, OR two large bags of cashews. I think a paperback copy of a good book is easily worth that.
The second piece of advice I’d like to give is: write your first draft as if no one will read it and then edit like everyone will. The reason my first novel took far too long, was because I obsessed over every paragraph. Allow the writing to flow in your first draft. You can obsess later. Get that story out!
Thanks for hosting me, Morgen.
To all the readers out there, please visit some of my site below!
H.M.C
Links
H.M.C, White Walls.
BLURB
Psychiatrist Jade Thatcher thinks that returning to her small, Australian hometown to start again, will be a healing experience – until her new job proves to be just the opposite. Her patients are linked in ways that she can’t explain, and the hospital has seen too many doctors come and go. It’s not long before she is lured by a well-guarded secret; one that sends her to a dark and dangerous place, with little hope of returning.
EXCERPT
Sunlight peeked through the gaps in the canopy. The Australian bushland spread over either side of the road, and above them, like a welcoming arch. The quiet shade and cool air made Jade feel secure. Lawyer vines and creepers twirled around the old Gums and Paperbarks. The ground was covered in native grasses and layer upon layer of leaf litter.
It was breathtaking and it reminded Jade of her childhood. She remembered the smell of rain as she ventured through the undergrowth with nowhere in particular to be. There was no set time to be home, as long as it was before the sun went down. She would watch, delighted, as Angus would throw rocks into the creek, catch tadpoles and jump from rock to rock. A much simpler time – just like her mother and grandmother would profess about their very own childhoods. Were we all doomed to become more and more complex?
This was why she returned to Fairholmes. To try to regain some of that happiness that had been here … just where she had left it. Angus spoke, and he had to repeat himself before getting her attention.
‘I think they’ve given up,’ he said.
**
You’re very welcome, Hayley. Great to have you join me today. I blame Stephen King for me wearing glasses (reading his books under the duvet with a torch as a teenager).
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, Hayley Coates, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, HM Coates, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-seventh, is of literary and contemporary novelist Rayne E. Golay. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Whenever she pauses to think about her past, Rayne E. Golay realizes she’s lived three lives in one. Some people are lucky to spend their whole lives in the village or town or country where they were born. They’re surrounded by relatives and friends they’ve known since childhood, have deep roots. Rayne is convinced they are very rich. Her life has been made of a different cloth with hues of the rainbow. It’s been about change and adaptation.
Born in Helsinki, Finland, on the eve of the Finno-Russian Winter War, Rayne together with her family survived the heavy bombardments, food shortage, exceptionally cold winters with her mother, grandparents and aunt. Her father, like all able-bodied Finnish men, was on the front fighting to maintain freedom from Russian dominance, their country independent only since 1917. Despite the hardship of those years, Rayne considers herself fortunate; she wasn’t among the war children, uprooted from their homes and sent to Sweden to live with total strangers; she was spared the horrors of a concentration camp and extermination.
When Rayne was a very young child, her mother used to read to her. When she was done reading “A Thousand and One Nights” Rayne’s passion for books and writing was born. From then on, Rayne read everything with the printed word: matchboxes, newspapers, pamphlet and books when they were available. She was no older than six when her father obtained a library card for her, the happiest day of her childhood. To this day, she reads at least three books a week. In school, Rayne always had high grades in composition, and wanted to be a journalist, but her parents had other plans. Complying, she obtained a Masters degree in psychology and certification as drug and alcohol counselor in England after studies in the United States.
Skilled in languages, at the age of fifteen Rayne translated dialogues of Hollywood movies from English into Finnish and Swedish. This, her first paying job, came through her father, who was the Nordic managing director of a prominent American film company.
After graduation, she married and had two children in rapid succession. Her then husband was transferred to Geneva, Switzerland, so that’s where she moved with their children. The marriage didn’t last; four years after the transfer, she divorced her husband, but stayed on in Geneva with her daughter and son.
In Geneva, Rayne worked in a multinational company as a drug and alcohol counselor with responsibilities for all of the company’s European subsidiaries. During this time, she wrote two non-fiction books: one about alcoholism, another about dysfunction in the workplace. She also wrote the script to “Something of The Danger That Exists,” a 50-minute video, used within the company as part of an educational program, which she facilitated.
When corporate politics changed in the early 1990s, the result was massive layoffs of employees. The multinational company that had employed Rayne for more than twenty-five years, offered her early retirement. Glad to accept, she finally had the time to pursue her dream to write.
After a life long dream of writing, you’d assume that Rayne threw herself into the craft with enthusiasm and heartiness, but not so. Two years into retirement, she celebrated her birthday with her family in a Chinese restaurant. Along with the bill, came the inevitable fortune cookies. The slip of paper in Rayne’s said: “You’re a lover of words. One day you will write a book.” Her son wanted to know why she wasn’t writing, she who’d so often talked about it before she retired. Rayne explained that she didn’t quite know how to go about it because at work she’d used a word processors until they were replaced with the PC. It was all mechanics to her, she explained. Her daughter reached under the table, grinned and handed her a fairly big gift wrapped packet, saying, “Here’s how. Now you have no more excuses.” Her family’s gift was her first laptop computer.
*
And now from the author herself:
Watching a handyman paint my pool deck, my vision for my first book took form. I couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was about this man that intrigued me, but he became Michael in this story. Over one summer, alone with my computer, either in my office or on the lanai, I wrote this book with the working title Falling Into Michael. Once I was done editing, before I offered it to agents and editors, the title Life Is A Foreign Language occurred to me, which synthesizes my protagonist’s outlook on life.
Not to lose my mind while I waited for the phone call or the letter as Life Is A Foreign Language made the rounds, I started working on my very first effort in fiction writing; a formless mass of words that I wrote when my family gave me a PC. My professional experiences counseling alcoholics, addicts and dysfunctional individuals gave me the framework of what is now The Wooden Chair.
A believer in writing about what I know, about locales familiar to me and themes drawn from life experiences, enriched by working as a psychotherapist and addictions counselor, I made The Wooden Chair follow the geographic trajectory of my own life. I strove to give as intimate a portrayal of my protagonist’s experiences as I could. Some readers may imagine the story is autobiographical, but that is not so. Though wonderfully realistic, the characters and their actions are fictitious.
None of the characters in The Wooden Chair exist as such. From the female protagonist, Leini, to the rescue dog, Nutella, every person is a composite of various persons I have known combined with my own imagination. I did move from Helsinki to Geneva, but in reality the move happened about ten years later than described in the book, and for different reasons. The landscape I paint of places and situations is real, as true as my faulty memory allows.
The Wooden Chair went through ten rewrites, first with a writing mentor, later with my critique group. I submitted it to a huge number of agents. Most rejections I received were very complimentary to both the story and my writing. But there was always a “but”. The story didn’t fall into any particular genre, so agents were not sure where to pitch it. The Wooden Chair was a runner up in a couple of contests in which I entered it and won the Royal Palm with Florida Writers.
Somebody with less perseverance than I would give up, but I kept offering it to editors and small publishers. I believed in this story, believed it had a readership, believed it was good enough to be published. I do believe it will do well now that it’s published. Through rejection after rejection, Richard Bach’s words kept echoing in my mind: “An author is a writer who didn’t give up.”
**
Absolutely. If a writer loves writing enough they won’t (myself included). Thank you, Rayne.
You can find more about Rayne and her writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, Rayne Golay, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-sixth, is of biographical trilogy writer Patrick C Notchtree. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Patrick C Notchtree has been a teacher and a police officer. He has always been ‘good with words’ and used to get good marks for writing stories at primary school. Although the demands of later education meant much of his later writing was more factual, this never left him. Indeed one police inspector remarked that his statements were the most readable he had to deal with, “It reads like an adventure story, I can see it happening”.
He has travelled widely in Europe, North America and has set foot in Africa. Indeed while there he was offered a hundred sheep or five camels for his fiancée who was with him. Happily he declined the offer and married her instead. They have two children and now three grandchildren.
His life has had its troubled, darker side which led to a major crisis in his sixties and then to the writing of his biographical memoir in which he seeks to explore those influences that made him the troubled and conflicted person he readily admits he is.
Patrick now lives in the north of England with his wife and has his son and two granddaughters nearby. Much of his life is reflected in the biographical trilogy “The Clouds Still Hang”, so to repeat too many biographical details here would be something of a ‘spoiler’!
*
And now from the author himself:
I started writing things down many years ago, thinking about my childhood, my first love and how much he meant to me. Making notes, gradually building memories. The idea of a published book came much more recently. After the trauma of my early sixties, I had to seek help. For my own PTSD, which remained undiagnosed for decades, I found talking was very hard. To speak about the ‘principal event’ was impossible for a long time and in the end it was my wise counsellor who suggested writing rather than talking. This painful process eventually managed to break the logjam in my head and of course eventually led to my book. The whole thrust of the book is the damage that early sexualisation can do, even when not coercive, and this is developed at length in the chapter in the last book where ‘Simon’ goes over the past with a psychiatrist.
The result is my autobiographical novel, “The Clouds Still Hang”. Rather than write in the first person I chose to tell the story mainly through the eyes of ‘Simon’. This gives the writer flexibility to step outside the main character from time to time. By fictionalising the account I was also able to shield the true identity of many characters to protect the innocent – and the guilty!
I am one of many – I now realise – of my generation who grew up denying and hiding their gay sexuality. Struggling to live a ‘normal’ life, the protagonist of the book, Simon, does what is expected and remains firmly in the closet. Structured in three sub-books, the first tells of Simon’s childhood, his friendship, love and eventual sexual relationship with an older boy, the second the trauma of the 1960s including the ‘principal event’ referred to above, the third his continuing struggle to comply with social expectations, unsuccessfully, leading to his eventual downfall and re-emergence as a man at last true to himself.
The book was written as a way of expressing much of what has happened in my own life and was written over two decades, but the bulk of it in the last few years.
The title is a line from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and as readers will find, Simon identifies with the troubled prince as he struggles to come to terms with the cards life has dealt him. In some respects there are clouds that will always hang over him.
The cover was produced by myself. Is the young man looking along the road to his past or his future? At the clouds of the troubles he has experienced? Or is the rainbow the symbol of his innate optimism and emerging true identity?
There are some parts of the book I found very hard to write. Two sections in particular led to tears being shed anew and much emotion relived. To say which sections would be a spoiler but readers will no doubt reach their own decisions. But the memories evoked in the writing also brought relived joy and happiness as well. Like life, the book is a roller coaster ride.
It is a fictional biography, written because it tells a strong story which raises many issues over six decades, the post war baby boomer generation who in many ways never had it so good.
My own experience is probably unique, yet will strike a chord with many others who have been through similar things, as well as those with an interest in such matters, either personal or professional, such as police and probation officers, criminologists with an interest in this field or those investigating the developing ‘queer theory’. It’s a varied, exciting, demanding, sometimes terrifying life story.
In its small way it has been controversial. This is because the first part contains descriptions of sex between teenage boys. These are a part of the story but it is not an erotic book, in fact I was as careful as I could be to avoid pornographic narrative and most reviewers have been positive about a sensitive and caring portrayal of adolescent love. The book would make no sense without these scenes and neither would the rest of the trilogy which describe Simon’s later life. It was important to be honest.
There are three main love stories and some explicit sexual scenes, both gay and straight, so it is recommended for over 18s and those not easily offended by such narrative, including one scene of sexual violence.
The first part was originally published in March 2012 under the title “The Secret Catamite Book 1 – The Book of Daniel” which is still available separately in downloadable formats only but is available free!
**
You can find more about Patrick and his writing via his website: http://www.thecloudsstillhang.com.
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, Patrick C Notchtree, Patrick Notchtree, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-fifth is of military mystery / suspense / action novelist and interviewee CN Bring.
CN Bring gravitated toward military intrigue and suspense coming from a family whose members served in the Army and continues with relatives still serving. She earned her Associates Degree in Criminal Investigation for Private Investigation. Her extensive research and life experience lend an authentic feel to both her Celia Kelly Series (military / mystery / thriller), as well as the Jack Sleuth Series (crime / mystery) for youth.
Bring is an advocate for heroes and heroines in all walks of life. A big supporter of the military and our country’s Constitution, Wounded Warriors, Missing In America Project and Lupus Research. Bring is also a supporter of all who take the time to serve others in their communities and given professions. We can all make a difference one life at a time. There is a hero in all of us.
*
And now from the author herself:
The first time I thought about writing was several years ago. My husband was away from home for long periods of time with his job, when I first had the story idea come to me. After the kids went to bed, I would go to work on my story.
I have always loved mysteries and books about the military. My goal was to create a mystery / suspense novel that was engaging, inspiring, fun, and page turning without being offensive. The Pact originally started out self-published and then I signed with independent publisher Bad Day Books, an imprint of Assent Publishing in January. In March I signed the rest of the series with Assent.
I am inspired by those who serve our country and those within our borders who go above and beyond to keep us safe every day, those in the military, law enforcement, doctors, nurses and many others. My book was inspired by everyday people who are everyday heroes in extraordinary circumstances.
*
And about ‘The Pact’:
Commander Celia Kelly is a perceptive Naval Intelligence Officer rebuilding her life after the tragic death of her husband. The suspicious suicide of a fellow Officer has Celia questioning the mission she’s been assigned.
With the help of a one-of-a-kind secretary, by the book assistant, and a Navy SEAL, Kelly discovers she’s been set up. Digging relentlessly, nothing is as it seems.
Someone is after twenty million dollars that disappeared when Kelly’s husband died and now that someone is after her! With surprises at the turn of every page, the original characters and three dimensional plot lines keep the suspense going until the very end.
*
Other Celia Kelly Series & Jack Sleuth books coming soon:
The Lie
A new President. A new team. A scandalous lie. In the latest of the Celia Kelly series, the Naval Commander finds herself caught up in political intrigue as the next mystery has her questioning everything. The President brings with him his inexplicable past. Death hits close to home as Celia deals with a mission that collapses ending in the loss of a SEAL. After returning home Kelly discovers the new President may have had something to do with the mission’s failure. As secrets begin to unravel, they run over everyone in their path. The price will be high when Kelly and her team finally uncover the truth. And just when you think that it’s over… it’s not!
The Truth
Terrorism hits close to home killing the President’s wife, youngest daughter, and leaving his oldest daughter paralyzed when a bomb goes off in Washington, D.C.. Commander Celia Kelly and the SEAL Team are sent on a wild goose chase trying to negotiate with terrorist Amar Nycofi in order to find a second target before it is too late. Everyone is at risk as the hunt begins for the second target… When a Navy SEAL becomes a prisoner, during the rescue, another prisoner, long forgotten, is discovered in a Middle Eastern prison. Celia finally finds the answers about her husband…Is he alive or was he part of the Pact? In the mean time, the Pact resurfaces and the truth about everything finally comes out. No one is who Kelly thought they were as the suspenseful action unfolds. Where will the truth lead them? Will this mission prove to be too much even for Commander Celia Kelly?
The Disappearance
The newly settled life of Commander Celia Kelly suffers when a seemingly routine flight out of Nairobi becomes an unlikely catalyst. The Deputy Director of the CIA goes missing in Africa. His bags make the plane…he doesn’t. In the mean time, an imposter with an agenda takes another man’s seat for a free trip into the United States. Commander Celia Kelly and the Navy SEALs are called up to find the missing CIA Deputy Director Bradley Turner. While the mission takes action in Africa, the FBI begins an investigation into the mysterious passenger now somewhere in the United States to determine why he is here and what or who his target is. The FBI, Commander Kelly, and the Navy SEALs are set on a collision course as each Agency’s individual research force them into a parallel climax. With the help of an old opponent from the Pact, CIA operative William Dixon, they come together only to be shocked by what no one sees coming…
The House Across The Street
Nothing ever happens in Next, Arizona. Certainly never to Jack Sleuth who’s biggest adventure so far is trying to avoid being tormented by the neighborhood bully. Jack and his friends Kyle, with a high IQ, and Curley, who has a disease called Alopecia, end a quiet summer vacation by becoming involved in solving the biggest mystery to ever hit their boring town. When Jack suffers a case of Deja vu, Kyle and Curly try to help him sort it out. Coming across an FBI Agent who drops the ball, Jack and his buddies must rescue the Agent, figure out who’s who, avoid the neighborhood bully and pick up the ball to save the Agent’s first case. The humor and suspense builds as the boys investigate The House Across The Street.
**
You can find more about Cindy and her writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, Cindy Bring, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-fourth is of children’s author and interviewee Goldie Alexander.
Goldie Alexander writes for both adults and children of all ages; her books are published both here and overseas.
Her novels for adults include “The Grevillea Murder Mystery Trilogy” and ‘Mentoring Your Memoir’ and how-to-write.
Her historical fiction includes “My Australian Story: Surviving Sydney Cove”, is now in its 10th edition.
A new YA novel includes “The Youngest Cameleer” about the finding of Uluru in 1873.
She has three collections of short stories for young readers: “Killer Virus and Other Stories”, “Horribly Cousins and Other Stories” and “Space Footy and Other Stories”
Novels appearing in 2013 include the ebook YA “Dessi’s Romance,” “eSide: A Journey into Cyberspace” for middle grade readers; and “Gallipoli Medals” for junior readers.
She also writes scripts and non-fiction.
Her website is www.goldiealexander.com which also features a useful blog. As an experienced author who has taught creative writing for some 17 years, this blog contains many tips about writing and could be useful to emerging authors.
*
And now from the author herself:
Some Of My Publishing Experiences
I learnt my alphabet at the age of three and that set me on the path to becoming a voracious reader. It was my way of escaping a family that always seemed to be on the verge of chaos and I still use this as an escape route when life takes an unfortunate turn. Back then I made up lots of stories. But I never considered writing them down because there were too many strictures – I had teachers who pushed spelling and grammar at the expense of imagination and I supposed I was, at least on the outside, an obedient child. Even so as I grew older, when anything of significance happened no matter how traumatic, part of me always stood back, used that ‘shard of ice’ that other authors speak about, because I always knew that one day I would write about them.
I was in my early forties before I started jotting down some of my experiences and weaving them into stories which I sent off to various publishers. No luck there, because I really didn’t know what I was doing. My first promising experience was having an adult short story accepted by the ‘Australian’ which ran a ‘literary section’. Straight after that acceptance, this section ceased to exist and my story never appeared. My disappointment was profound.
Having come from twenty-five years of teaching secondary students English and History, my next attempt was a novel for Young Adults. I can’t remember what this novel was about, only that it had a fashionably long title that possibly had nothing to do with the story. But I was learning on the job. And my luck turned when Greenhouse Publishing under the title of ‘Dolly Fiction’ let it be known that they were looking for authors to write about independent girls in contemporary situations. Their rules were strict: a maximum of 32,000 words. No fantasy, science fiction or magic realism. In the space of a year I wrote four Dolly Fictions under the pseudonym of ‘Gerri Lapin’ and I covered themes that have since been used many times by other authors.
Dolly Fiction’s payments were generous, but now knowing what I know, I wish I’d insisted on royalties instead of being paid outright, and written those books under my own name as they were widely published in the UK and South Africa and appeared in most school libraries. Many of our better known Australian authors began their writing careers with Dolly Fiction. The problem now as I see it, is that these books had the unfortunate label of ‘romance’ which back in the 90’s seemed very unliterary, if not positively embarrassing. What a shame as many young women I meet have mentioned reading those books and from them absorbing some excellent values.
Since then I have been writing for kids for over two decades. In that time I have had periods of flood and drought, feast and famine. There were wonderful years when everything I wrote was picked up immediately. Others, when it took more than a decade to find a publisher for a particular ‘orphan’. This meant I had to ask myself if I had sent out that ms out at the wrong time, or to the wrong place, or in the wrong format? Perhaps the market wasn’t ready for it. Sometimes, on rereading, I realised that the ms needed more work, and then I would rewrite and resubmit. I certainly kept redrafting until that ms was finally sold. The synopsis and opening pages were vital. If I couldn’t attract a submissions editor, I was in trouble. Sometimes changing a title, or even cannibalizing the ms, could prove fruitful. Thus several lengthy stories were condensed to join my three short story collections. I never sent out an ms without first checking if it needed cutting, fleshing out, or more on line editing.
Thus my latest is YA novel “Dessi’s Romance” is also on the edge of a revolution in that it is only being published as an ebook, which of course saves my publisher www.indra.com printing costs, paper and warehouse storage, though certainly no skimping on editing and layout. However, the question still remains; how are we to market this work? Once this was done by professionals. These days it is up to us. And what’s more, we have to do this without spending lots of money on a professional marketer.
My primary technique is through my website. I regard this as my ‘shopwindow’ and of greatest importance. As it has been updated by a young webmaster into a completely new design, I feel he knows what will appeal to other young people. That website also carries a blog that I fill with news about my latest books, both those that appear in print and on line, and about the process of writing.
I use Facebook and Twitter to spread the word and all offer advice to aspiring and emerging creators. Other creators have helped promote my latest YA novel as many have blogs and seem happy to interview me, particularly as I make it easy by always emailing a list of questions and answers they only have to ‘cut and paste’. I write articles for the better ezines which keeps my brand, AKA my name, in the public eye, and I feature other writers on my blog.
**
You can find more about Goldie and her writing via… www.goldiealexander.com and www.goldielexander.com.blog.
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goldie Alexander, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-third, is of suspense novelist Suzanne Brandyn. Suzanne is running a competition, detailed after this spotlight.
Suzanne Brandyn was born on the edge of the outback of NSW Australia.
She pursued life from the hot, red dust of cattle country to many Australian cities and small country towns.
She has mustered sheep on a horse and a motorbike, spotlighted for foxes and learned to shoot a rifle, dived the Great Barrier Reef and surrounding islands, speared fish, swam with sharks and dolphins, avoided sea snakes and moray eels, and taken free rides on sea turtles.
*
And now from the author herself:
I frequent my place of birth in rural Australia as often as I can. The air seems to bring an inner peace and the people treat you as though you have never left. They say there is no place like home. I agree. That is if I can keep my feet still long enough and not have one boot over the mountain, or the other stilettoed foot tapping away in a city.
I have four novels published with an e-press publisher, and I’m about to go INDIE and publish Outback Fear, a suspense with a touch of romance. Outback Fear is a story of one woman’s courage of fighting back, of redemption and newfound love.
Women are a resilient species, and we often pull through some of the toughest times in life. Let’s follow our dreams.
And a little about her book ‘Outback Fear’…
Savannah Harris is determined to raise her three-month-old daughter in the best possible environment, and flees home to Grace Creek, an inheritance from her recently deceased mother.
But even this peaceful property cannot cocoon her from her abusive husband or a stranger who intends to rip her life apart.
In an atmosphere thick with fear, Savannah realises she cannot keep running, she must fight back or risk losing not only her life, but the only family she has left, her precious daughter.
And what others have said…
“Outback Fear is a tour de force of suspense and psychological and physical terror. Savannah is a remarkable heroine readers will love – and cheer for. She truly took back her life, once and for all freeing herself and Amy. What a heart-stopping and satisfying ending to a story of courage and hope.” Valerie Susan Hayward
**
You can find more about Suzanne and her writing via…
***
And last but not least, Suzanne’s competition:
Win a sapphire pendant valued at over $250 Au, set in Sterling Silver.
To celebrate the release of ‘Outback Fear,’ Suzanne is running a competition for readers to win a sapphire pendant set, with sapphires taken from the soil of Grace Creek, the fictional name of the property in Outback Fear, the property she lived on for many years. The competition began May 15th and runs until July 17th.
****
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, Suzanne Brandyn, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-second, is of debut equestrian novelist Christine Meunier.
Living in Victoria, Australia, Christine Meunier has published her first book, Horse Country. Particularly passionate about the world of breeding horses, Christine teaches horse breeding at a TAFE in Victoria, Australia.
Drawing from her own experiences, she has put together a fictional but factual novel regarding work in the thoroughbred breeding industry and a metropolitan horse riding school. It was at 13 years of age that Christine was introduced to first having a horse, but from a much younger age, that she started to learn about them through fiction and non fiction books. She continues to learn about them from books, but recognises that horses cannot be learnt from books alone.
Having studied horses from the age of 16, Christine is currently undertaking the Bachelor of Equine Science in Australia. Previously she attained her Certificate II in Horse Studies, Diploma of Horse Studies (Breeding) and Certificate of Merit from the Irish National Stud. Before teaching others about horse care and breeding she worked at numerous thoroughbred studs in Australia as well as overseas in Ireland.
This was followed by gaining experience in a couple of Melbourne based horse riding schools, instructing others with regards to riding the horse. A trip over to South Africa followed, allowing Christine the chance to gain many hours in the saddle and improve her own riding.
It is the education of people regarding horses being a viable career option that has been the catalyst for writing a blog about equine related vocations, education and travel.
*
And now from the author herself:
My first novel follows the lives of four young women working with horses. The first two – Lise and Wes – are undertaking work with thoroughbred stud horses in North East Victoria, Australia. Horse Country follows the seasons of the thoroughbred breeding world, looking at the day to day working on a stud.
I have also looked into the prospect of working in a riding school, having written about sisters Maddie and Melanie that teach horse riding at the East Riding School, owned by their parents.
Horse Country is set for release on July 1st, 2103 and will be available in hard copy and ebook format.
It is my hope that this novel encourages those who love the equine species, to pursue a career working with them. I hope that they find the novel informative and entertaining and realise that horses are indeed a viable career.
I have written Horse Country to cover the weanling, yearling and breeding seasons of the thoroughbred breeding world and the weekly running of a riding school and what school holiday programs with horses can look like. Horse Country is a large novel of close to 500 pages, clearly depicting what life can look like working with horses each month of the year. I have woven the story around the lives of four different women, enlightening readers to different characters and personalities, as well as the point of view of those already in the industry, and one student working her way into the horse industry.
**
You can find more about Christine and her writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, Christine Meunier, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-first, is of contemporary historical romance novelist Hannah Fielding. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Hannah Fielding is a novelist, a dreamer, a traveller, a mother, a wife and an incurable romantic. The seeds for her writing career were sown in early childhood, spent in Egypt, when she came to an agreement with her governess Zula: for each fairy story Zula told, Hannah would invent and relate one of her own.
Years later – following a degree in French literature, several years of travelling in Europe, falling in love with an Englishman, the arrival of two beautiful children and a career in property development – Hannah decided after so many years of yearning to write that the time was now.
Today, she lives the dream: she writes full-time, splitting her time between her homes in Kent, England, and the South of France, where she dreams up romances overlooking breath-taking views of the Mediterranean.
*
And now from the author herself:
Stories and writing have always been part of my life. My father was a great raconteur and my governess used to tell the most fabulous fairy stories – I could listen to them for hours. When I was seven she and I came to an agreement: for every story she’d tell me I would invent one in return. That is how my passion for storytelling began.
At school I consistently received first prize for my essays and my teachers often read them aloud in class. As a teenager I used to write short romantic stories during lessons and circulate them in class, which made me very popular with my peers (but less so with the nuns!). In addition, since a young age I have kept some sort of a diary where I note my feelings, ideas and things that take my fancy (or not).
My grandmother was a published author of poetry and my father published a book about the history of our family, so writing runs in my veins. I guess I always knew that one day I would follow in those footsteps and forge my own path in that field – a subconscious dream which finally came true with the publication of my debut novel, Burning Embers.
Burning Embers, published by Omnific Publishing, is a contemporary historical romance novel set in Kenya in 1970. It is an evocative and passionate story of coming of age, of letting go of the past, of having faith in a person and of overcoming obstacles to love, set against the vivid and colourful backdrop of rural Africa and its culture. It’s been called by one newspaper ‘epic romance like Hollywood used to make’.
Burning Embers began not as a story, but as a vivid landscape in my mind. The seed of the ideas was sown many years ago when, as a schoolgirl, I studied the works of Leconte de Lisle, a French Romantic poet of the 19th century. His poems are wonderfully descriptive and vivid – about wild animals, magnificent dawns and sunsets, exotic settings and colourful vistas (see http://www.hannahfielding.net/?cat=7 for translations). Then, later on, I went on holiday to Kenya with my parents and I met our family friend Mr Chiumbo Wangai, who often used to visit us. He was a great raconteur and told me extensively about his beautiful country, its tribes, its traditions and its customs. I was enthralled. His ability to describe the many facets of his country and his people endeared Kenya to my heart long before I set foot in it.
Later, once I had visited the country myself, I put pen to paper and Burning Embers came to life. Burning Embers had to be written; there was too much about the place and its people that I felt passionate about.
People often ask me about the time and setting of my novel. Quite simply, I write what I know. I grew up in a rambling house in Alexandria, Egypt, and my bedroom windows overlooked the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. I could see up to the harbour. At any time of day when I looked out of my windows, there was beauty in the scenery. That is where I first experienced the blazing dawns and sunsets, the brilliant azure sky and the ever-changing colours of the sea – silver under the moonlight, almost purple and orange in the early morning or the evening, deep blue in autumn, angry grey in winter and almost turquoise in the spring and summer. Now, my plots are set in warm countries: such vivacious, passionate people, fascinating cultures and wonderful, breath-taking vistas. It is what I know best, what touches me most, so I situate my stories in places that bring warmth to my heart.
Since writing Burning Embers, I have written a number of books which will publish soon, and I have been travelling extensively, searching for new pastures in which to set my future novels.
I have written a passionate, fiery trilogy set in Andalucía, Spain, spanning three generations of a Spanish / English family, from 1950 to the present day.
I have also just finished writing a touching, deeply romantic novel that takes place in Venice and in Tuscany, Italy in 1979 / 1980. It opens with the Venice Carnival that has returned after a cessation of almost two centuries.
Greece is also on the map for a new Hannah Fielding romantic novel. I am now in the process of researching and planning a very dramatic and steamy love story that takes place on one of the many Greek Islands. I chose Greece because I know that captivating country and its people well – I have good Greek friends. I bought my wedding dress in Athens and my husband and I honeymooned on Rhodes Island. Greek mythology was part of the literature course I read at university and Greece is not far from Alexandria where I grew up.
I still have numerous books in me and I intend to write a historical romance trilogy, which will be set in Egypt and will take my readers from the 1940s to the present day.
I so enjoy researching these books (what better excuse to visit Venice), and they are in the pipeline for publication in due course. I very much enjoy the publishing process and hearing from readers of my books. But for me, being a writer is not about publishing. It is simply about writing – writing from the heart the books that I most want to read. As the Toni Morrison said, ‘If there’s a book you want to read and it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.’
**
You can find more about Hannah and her writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, Hannah Fielding, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, Omnific Publishing, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fiftieth, is of children’s author Jennifer Priester. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Jennifer Priester is the author, artist, and layout designer, publisher, but not editor, of fiction and nonfiction books about animals, the relationship between humans and animals, magic, the supernatural, and superheroes.
She writes in one or more of these genres; fantasy, children’s fiction, short stories, nonfiction, comic books, graphic novels, and sci-fi. Although most of her books are currently unpublished she has written over 200 stories which span approximately 72 books including free on website stories.
Her first published book was the first book in the Mortal Realm Witch series, which is a uniquely written fantasy series for children.
To self publish her books, Jennifer created a company called A & M Moonlight Creations which is a real publishing company that can and may publish other people’s books as well as her own in the future. Besides being a publisher she is also a layout designer for other people’s books. As a layout designer she turns books into either print, eBook format, or both depending on what is requested.
Although she does almost everything in regards to her own books, she does not edit her own work. For editing she has and finds it worth the money to have a professional editor for her books. Then for beta readers she prefers to use both readers in her age range and English teachers. English teachers have been especially important in deciding the age level for her books.
Besides writing she likes to read books, draw, watch TV / movies, play video games, go horseback riding in which she rides both English and Western, spend time with her pets, and spend a lot of time outdoors.
She loves animals and currently owns a Chihuahua called Taco, two Mini Rex rabbits called Chibi and Kojikaki, and a ten year old Goldfish called Pumpkin. She has also owned many pets in the past including many different fish, a Dutch rabbit called Friendly, a Dutch mix called Oreo, a Toy Poodle called CeJaye, and a parakeet called Peekablue. Most of her pets have been rescues and ever since her first rescue pet, Oreo, she is now adoption only when it comes to getting new pets.
Besides pets, Jennifer also has many anipals; animals she doesn’t own but is friends with. One of her favorite anipals is an Appendix Quarter horse called Levi. Other current anipals include: a gray and white shorthair cat called Bengals, a medium haired gray cat that she nicknamed Wildcat because she can never remember his real name and because he was once feral, and a Beagle called Startigan. In the past she has been friends with a shorthaired black cat called Lucky, a gray Arabian horse called Felix, a gray Arabian horse called Sunny, a Chihuahua / Terrier mix called Chloe, and a Poodle / Schnauzer mix called Vera among others.
All of her pets both past and present, and many of her anipals have inspired her to write either nonfiction or fiction about them. The animals that have inspired characters in her fiction stories even have their own dedication page on her website.
Jennifer also has an occasional author blog in which she sometimes blogs about her books and writing, and other times she blogs about more random subjects either relating to animals or books in some way. She can be found on most social networks, most of which can be gotten to through her website, but is most active on Goodreads.
*
And now from the author herself:
When my Mortal Realm Witch series began developing, I chose a unique path for the series. For one thing, in the end the series will have five main books, three companions, a guidebook, two free eBooks, one cheap eBook, and a comic book style video. Many of the books in the series are told by short stories that connect into each other by characters and timeline, but can easily be read out of order. The series itself can also easily be read out of order. Another thing I chose to do was to develop the characters over the entire coarse of the series, therefore to know exactly who my characters are you would have to read every story and book in which they appear. Another unique thing about my series is that I tell stories how I feel they are told best so some will be in first person, some third, and different characters tell different stories. Then most of the books in the series are told using short stories, such as books 1, 2, and 4, and Companion 2. Companions 1 and 3 are just short stories, although there is one continuing story between part 1 and part 2 of the first companion. And books 3 and 5 in the series are full-length novels. The reason 3 and 5 are full length is because they have the biggest stories to tell. The final unique thing, that I know about, regarding my series is that the action builds in each book. This means that each book in the main series has more action than the last.
Book one is mostly set up for the big action and contains more details than what will be seen in future books. The higher action stories begin at the books turning story of “Wolf Magic.” Although not unique I also feel that with each book I write my writing gets better and because of this as time goes on whatever story I am currently working on seems to become my favorite although I do like every book I write. If I didn’t I wouldn’t publish them.
Now, when thinking of my book don’t think of books like “Harry Potter” when you are reading them, this is not the books they are like and if you are thinking this way you will probably be disappointed, rather think of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” because you will find many more similarities here because Sabrina was one of the biggest influences in the writing of my series. Other books and TV shows such as “The Worst Witch” and “Bewitched” were also big influences.
The Mortal Realm Witch series is aimed for a target audience of ages 8-12, but if you are older and like to read about animals and magic then you may also like the book, I do have some adult fans so you wouldn’t be alone if you were to like it. Anyway, I know it may seem a little confusing about how my series is written because it is hard to explain. If you are interested in learning about the series I strongly suggest visiting the Mortal Realm Witch website in which you can learn about all the books, excluding eBooks, in the series, meet the characters, read a free story, and generally just get a feel for the series. One thing I never thought about when writing my series was how I was going to explain it to people.
**
You can find more about Jennifer and her writing via…
And I thought I was everywhere!
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Jennifer Priester, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and forty-ninth, is of Rosey Thomas Palmer.
Rosey Thomas Palmer is proud to be a dual citizen of Jamaica and the UK with writing connections in both countries. After an education in London, she started adult life as a teacher on contract to the Jamaican government in Spanish Town and at Vauxhall School in Kingston. Family pressures took her back to England where she taught for ten years in various schools in South London, Peterborough and Nottingham where her awareness of the undervaluation of the Jamaican language and culture was pointed up by a senior post focused on the attainment and labelling of the children of England’s immigrant work force.
The happy and productive years she had spent in Jamaican schools drew her back to her adoptive country, accompanied by her then husband and two children. Settling in Westmoreland, close to Mr Palmer’s roots, Rosey found that Westmoreland compared badly with Kingston for youth activities and literary opportunities. In response she founded and ran DELA Children’s Workshop and assisted like minds by collaborating to create Sav Ink, the Savanna-la-mar Arts Movement, Westmoreland Inter-Schools Reading Association and the Westmoreland Chapter of the Sustainable Communities’ Foundation for Tourism. In the course of these involvements she met her friend and mentor, Eva Jones, and began to weave the novel that became “Hues of Blackness: a Jamaican Saga”.
The saga of personal life and the impetus of her will to publish took Rosey Thomas Palmer back to the UK and held her there for ten years whilst her children matured and her marriage crumbled. Rosey’s daughters chose England as their place of permanent residence and her mother aged slowly. To fund her stay, Rosey gravitated to a career in Health and Social Care through which she met many of the original Jamaican migrants to Nottingham and heard their stories as well as learning about the toll life in a cold climate had taken on their bodies how their sense of self had survived. This spurred more writing and led to mentoring and motivating activities for and with fellow writers.
Rosey Thomas Palmer now focuses on international links including visits to America and, hopefully, future visits to Africa, whilst resuming residence in Jamaica and deepening her contribution to literacy and literature there.
*
And now from the author herself:
I am inspired by beauty and variety. I am intrigued by ironies and discrepancies. I celebrate a multitude of experiences in various locations, both first and second hand. I write because it has been my strongest form of communication from childhood up. I publish because the voices of the people around me must be heard.
As many do, I spun narratives as a child, but I failed to take prompts from my mother and teachers seriously enough to build a career in writing. Instead I fancied visual arts or drama but settled for teaching. Throughout the troubled period of adolescence I wrote diary entries and poetry. As a young teacher of English I experimented with a fantasy novel. All of these scriblings are now lost. However, I taught literature creatively and moved from this to playwriting with a dynamic group of students at Vauxhall Secondary School. I was privileged to have the support of my principal and other staff and training from the JCDC. I was still considered a visiting teacher, though, and, without a sense of belonging, I went back to the UK. Although play writing and production was put aside there, academic understanding was added to my Patois skills during subsequent studies for two degrees under the Institute of Education in London. During ten years of teaching in a variety of English schools and at increasing levels of responsibility, I used literary forms to assert the value of the home languages of families that had migrated from Jamaica.
After the termination of my first marriage I longed to return to Jamaica. When I returned it was to the country parish of Westmoreland where there were vaste resources of culture, history and language. waiting to be conserved. Drama still played a strong role in my teaching ad community life and i worked on school plays, community performances and Drama in Education. Poetry writing became public and shared with the poets’ co-operative known as Sav Ink from which mentoring opportunities opened up for me. Academic writing was requested by the Adult Dyslexia Organisation and my contacts with community tourism enabled field work for the novel about Westmoreland’s women that was later published as Hues of Blackness: a Jamaican Saga.
My daughters had grown up enough to leave their country home and return to the UK but not enough to manage comfortably without their parents. Our response to their need was a joint effort at first but distance and prejudicial legislation wore the marriage ties so thin that divorce was the regrettable outcome.
At liberty to explore the full parameters of being myself, I took on the cost of a joint venture publication which drove me to another diversification of my writing career. Whilst waiting for an affordable means to publish the sequels to Hues of Blackness, I began ghost writing for other self-published writers. I shared the stories of a refugee from the Yemen whose life spanned Russia and England as well as her husband’s homeland. Two volumes of her biography have been completed; Before It’s Too Late! and Fight For Life by Sandra Joyce Sallman. I also arranged and edited two books for an inspirational writer, Mark Phillps, They are published under the joint title of The Book of Life and the first edition to become available is sub-titled Born to Live. I have also recovered stories from early migrants to England in preparation for a celebratory anthology of Jamaicans’. experience in the UK.
I work rapidly, benefitting from deadlines and time scales. I seek good conditions for my writing by using my two homelands optimally for research and production. As I have to maintain employment in order to fund my craft, I find especial enjoyment in my career in care which enables me to meet the elderly, experienced and enlightened members of society and I remain fascinated by teaching the intricacies of the English language to mature and interested learners. I look forward to developing language and literature courses in Jamaican Creole now that the significant step of the production of the Jamaican Bible has taken place.
**
You can find more about Rosey and her writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, Rosey Palmer, Rosey Thomas, Rosey Thomas Palmer, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and forty-eighth, is of Christian, young adult and fantasy author TC Slonaker. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
A former elementary school teacher and subsequent lover of the English language in the written word, Tracy Slonaker found several new hobbies after embarking on the new career of motherhood. One hobby was running distances, which gave her plenty of time to create characters, build plots, and listen for God’s input. The result of all this thinking was the birth of a new hobby: writing the Angelmen Series, an analogy of God’s love for His people.Amity of the Angelmen is the first installment of this series.
Tracy enjoys her life as a wife and mother of three in just outside Reading, PA. She still has a soft spot for kids and an eagerness to use her degrees in Elementary Education by using them as Director of Christian Education at her non-denominational Christian church. She has also learned to love running, and has not given up her childhood fondness of sports (playing softball and watching football). She gives thanks to the Lord for all His good gifts.
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And now from the author herself:
I was born in Philadelphia and grew up in the suburbs thereof. As a child, I was into art and friends, sweets and shopping. And I hated reading. My grades were excellent, though teachers complained that I did not write complete sentences or explain my answers very well.
As a teenager, my grades remained great, even though I had now also gained interest in sports, people-pleasing, God, and poetry. Now I had softball and cheerleading, friends and youth group. So any creativity I extended had to be brief. Thus begun my foray into poetry.
College was great, and a degree in elementary education made me read more. The Freshmen Fifteen made me run more. (Stick with me – that’s important.)
And though this was where I met my husband, Jeremy, we did not begin a relationship until I graduated. So, graduation led to a teaching job (6th grade that first year) and a relationship led to a marriage in 1997. A few years later, I moved to 2nd grade, and then down to kindergarten. What next? You guessed it. Out of teaching to care for my own babies. I now am the happy mama to Hannah, Christian, and Audrey.
The funniest thing started happening toward the end of my teaching career. I began writing children’s books. I felt I had some great ideas and liked keeping it short. Another way of keeping it short? Contributing short devotions to God Stories. (You’ll find me in vol. 3-7 thus far.) As my children grew taller, my writing grew longer. And so did the time I spent running. They go together. Running for hours gives one a lot of time to think. What else are you going to do? So I listened. What did God want me to write? Well, start the Angelmen series, and you will find out! Happy reading to you!
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You can find more about T.C. and her writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, TC Slonaker, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and forty-seventh, is of novelist / memoirist Nancy S Kyme. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
About twenty years ago, after finishing a lengthy thesis for her Masters in Business, Nancy decided to write for fun. She embarked on a science fiction-fantasy epic. After a decade of writing, the project became so unwieldy and unmanageable, Nancy decided to tackle a smaller project. She attended a camp reunion in Northern Michigan and returned home inspired to write a short story for her camp friends. ”Nancy”, her best friend at camp, couldn’t remember any of their adventures. “Christy”, another camp friend, was worried they were forgetting all the great lessons they’d learned. A friend from home, “Misty”, had never attended camp and encouraged Nancy to expand their adventures into a novel so she could feel as if she had been there with them. The result is “Memory Lake; The Forever Friendships of Summer”. Nancy dedicated her novel to these three key friends. She also gives credit to her book group for encouraging her to seek publication. As these friends like to say, “Memory Lake’ is not just a book about summer camp, it’s a book about life.”
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And now from the author herself:
Family and friends have inspired me to write entertaining pieces from a joyful, optimistic perspective, having a thread of spiritual truth. My kids say I’m funny, but only when I’m not trying to be, which means, like most folk, I’m just bumbling through life searching for meaning. I’m intrigued by our daily choices and relationships, and how they evolved from our past and how they influence our future. I’m convinced we are all connected, though we may not always remember, and I believe the best works of art should remind us of this.
My first novel, “Memory Lake; The Forever Friendships of Summer” was published by Vantage Point Books, July 2011. This novel-memoir became an Amazon best seller the following month. In June of 2012, it won first place in the Inspirational category of the “2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards”. Thanks to my friends, readership continues to grow, so when Vantage closed its doors in December 2012, I readily found a new publisher. A second edition of “Memory Lake” is scheduled for release May 2013 through Tate Publishing. I’m proud to join other inspirational authors, Joel Osteen and Lee Greenwood, and I’m pleased “Memory Lake” will stand alongside the likes of prequels to “The Wizard of Oz”, which were the basis of the recent movie hit.
In the fall of 2012, at my friends’ insistence, I launched a Word Press Blog, “CampFireMemories”. I’ve been including stories to complement the novel, but I have also discovered the weekly posts are inspiring me to write a sequel to “Memory Lake”, which will pick up where the other left off. In the interim, I’ve gone back to that science fiction-fantasy project which has been over twenty years in the making. It’s coming along nicely, and will remain faithful to our universal search for truth, joy, and optimism. In fact, I foresee a finished series by the end of 2014! I’d like to share one of my favorite blog posts, the recipient of many hits and ping backs, “Life is Like an Onion; Priceless”…
“KT unrolled the tattered batik on the framing shop’s counter. The worn image of two onions evoked a flood of memories. For Andy, the framer, it seemed unworthy. He laughed at its frayed edges, scattered holes, faded colors and said, “Well, it’s no Picasso. If it were, greater experts than I would be working around the clock to save it.”
Like the onion, its worth lay hidden. It had hung in my husband’s apartment at Indiana University when we first met. It had accompanied us on every move through his military career. KT had resurrected it from the dusty garage for her dorm room at I.U., then carried it to Oregon for her first home as a newlywed. Now she wanted to preserve and display it in her second home in North Idaho. She retained its sentimental value, I sought its mental value. When readers ask, “How did you remember such detail when writing Memory Lake?” I quote the lowly onion. Life adds layers. Writing peels them away. At the onion’s heart is an immature flower protected from the casual eye by layers of memory. Like a knife, the sharp pain of my mom’s passing had cut to the immature flower within and exposed these layers which I tenderly peeled away with the written word.
As Andy quoted a framing price worthy of a Dead Sea Scroll, KT’s phone alerted a text message. There, in front of that counter, we learned Dana’s battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma had officially entered remission after a year of treatments. And so, as another layer of memory slipped between us and the onions, I reached for my credit card.”
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You can find more about Nancy and her writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, Nancy Kyme, Nancy S Kyme, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and forty-sixth, is of non-fiction and crime writer Kathy Brandt with mention of her artist and photographer son, Max. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Kathy Brandt writes The Hannah Sampson Underwater Investigation Series (Swimming with the Dead, Dark Water Dive, Dangerous Depths, and Under Pressure), which were recently released as ebooks. She is also the co-author of Walks on the Margins: A Story of Bipolar Illness, written with her son, Max Maddox. It was a finalist for the Iowa Review Award in Non-Fiction. Kathy was on the Board of Directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Colorado Springs (NAMI) for six years and served as President. She is currently the NAMI-CS liaison to the Mental Health Court in Colorado Springs. She received the 2012 National Member of the Year Award for her outstanding service to NAMI. Kathy has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Rhetoric and taught writing at the University of Colorado for ten years.
Max Maddox is the co-author of Walks on the Margins: A Story of Bipolar Illness, which was a finalist for the Iowa Review Award in Non-Fiction. He has a BA in philosophy from Grinnell College and an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, where he was nominated for the Joan Mitchell Award and received the Fellowship Trust Award. He has exhibited his work in galleries including The Slought Foundation, The Print Center of Philadelphia, and the Ellen Powell Tiberino Memorial Museum. He was the preparator, photographer, and curator at the Sun King Gallery and Pyramid Museum in Philadelphia and also assistant to artist and curator Richard Torchia, Director of Arcadia University Gallery. He now lives in Colorado where he teaches and continues to pursue his career in art.
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And now from Kathy herself:
In 1999, my son, Max, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He was twenty and a junior at Grinnell College. I was shocked at the diagnosis, clueless about what it meant, and I was scared. What would the future hold for Max? We spent years trying to find good treatment in a mental health care system that too often fails those who struggle with mental illness. I was angry that we couldn’t find the help Max needed. Finally I found support through NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and became an advocate for those with mental illness and their families. As a writer, my advocacy inevitably involved writing about the issues. And I wanted to tell Max’s story so that people would understand the difficulties of having this illness, made worse by stigma, and that recovery is possible. But I wouldn’t do it without Max. Though reliving the years of illness would be painful, Max agreed to write the book with me. The result is a memoir about our joint and separate struggles with the illness entitled, Walks on the Margins: A Story of Bipolar Illness.
Writing the book brought us together in ways I never imagined and it helped us make sense of the years of chaos. We have told an honest though often painful story that ends with the understanding that mental illness is for life but that redemption and recovery are possible. In doing that, we hope that others with mental illness and their families will find comfort in knowing that they aren’t as alone as they might think. We also hope that we have succeeded in breaking down the barriers of stigma and made human and understandable an illness that so many fear or demonize.
This was a difficult book for us to write. We dredged up memories that we would have sooner left buried. We wrote things that we’d rather have left unsaid. We took a lot of risks, especially Max, as he told his story for everyone to hear.
Then there was the actual task of writing the book. We knew our story began the day Max had his first episode, and he called to tell me to turn on the news because the world had changed. Hoping that it was the world that had shifted, not my son, I’d switched on the TV. By noon that day he was in the hospital in Des Moines.
Nothing was quite as clear as that beginning though. We wrote and rewrote, restructured, revised. So much amazing material ended up on the cutting room floor. We realized we shouldn’t be including scenes just because they happened, but that those scenes, though dramatic, simply developed the same points. It’s hard to axe what you love or what you want to share with people, all the hurt, angst, humor, but if the scene didn’t add to the forward movement of the story, we let the it go. And we realized that we needed to consider the story arc more carefully. Having written several mysteries, I should have been tuned into the story arc from the beginning, but I’d lost sight of that need with the memoir. We asked ourselves what the final crisis was, the defining moment. And finally we finished.
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You can find more about Kathy and her writing via…
www.kathybrandtauthor.com and www.maxmaddox.net
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and forty-fifth, is of short story writer and novelist Gabriel Boutros. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
Gabriel Boutros practiced criminal law for 24 years in Montreal. During his career he had the opportunity to represent a wide range of clients, from the homeless to professional athletes; from suburban housewives to street gang members. He continues to live in Montreal with his wife and two sons.
He has always loved telling stories. Some of his friends have told him, not always kindly, that his quarter century as a defence attorney was spent spinning some of his best stories. He has brought that great love, and small talent, for storytelling to his fiction writing, an endeavour from which he has strayed for varying periods of time, but always returned. He has managed to get two of his short stories published: “I Drive” in Carte Blanche (an on-line literary review for the Quebec Writers Federation), and “Out of the Sun” in an anthology called Danse Macabre: Close Encounters With the Reaper.
He recently published his first novel, “The Guilty.” This is the story of a lawyer defending a client accused of a double murder, while dealing with a crisis of conscience about his profession and the “win at all costs” manner in which he has practiced it. The book is loosely based on a multiple-murder case that Gabriel Boutros worked on in the 1990s.
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And now from the author himself:
Although people have often said that one should write what he knows, for the longest time I wasn’t particularly interested in trying to write a courtroom drama. In fact, my short stories tend to be all over the map, both in terms of style and subject matter, but lawyers and trials have rarely appeared in them.
When it came to writing a novel, however, I decided to stick closer to home, especially because I had some things I wanted to say about certain aspects of my chosen profession. To be clear, I was always quite proud of the work I did as a defence attorney. During my years in defence I got to know many honest, ethical lawyers who worked hard to guarantee that anyone accused of a crime got a fair trial. These were honourable men and women who took their obligation to defend their clients to the best of their abilities very seriously. But, occasionally, I would meet lawyers who would gladly cross ethical lines as long as they, and their clients, came out winners. Sometimes, in the heat of battle and under the intense pressures that a major trial can create, even an honest lawyer could make a decision that he’d later come to regret. It was the story of just such a lawyer, desperate to win at all costs, that I wanted to tell.
In writing “The Guilty” I pictured the main character, Robert Bratt, as someone who is essentially a good person, but whose need to win has led him to forget his inherent honesty, and driven him to do things that he wished he hadn’t. This story is about how he begins to question himself and his profession at the same time he is hired to defend a young gang member accused of a double-murder. The client is not very likable, and may well be guilty. Bratt has to decide if this matters to him or not, and just how far he is willing to go to defend him.
The story is told on two levels: we follow the lawyer as he goes about doing the work of defending a suspect in a murder trial; and we also see the lawyer’s internal struggle as he questions himself and his actions, even as he does everything he can to win his case. I’ve tried to use my years of experience to bring a certain amount of detail and realism to the depiction of the trial. But I also tried to write a story that was fast moving and entertaining. I know the last thing I would want to read is something preachy, so I tried to avoid that, while giving the readers some realistic characters they could root for or against, in an exciting story. I hope I’ve succeeded, but that will be for others to decide.
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You can find more about Gabriel and his writing (including his short fiction) via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and forty-fourth, is of historical novelist and crime author John Foxjohn. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.
John Foxjohn grew up in rural Nacogdoches County, deep in the heart of East Texas and the pine forests. In fact, John often says, he was raised so far out in the country they had to pump sunshine to them. As he grew up, he developed an intense love for reading—a love that would never leave.
Books opened a new world and adventures for John that he imagined being a part of. He wanted to see that world, be a soldier, a cop and a detective, a coach, and yes, he even wanted to write books. When he was twelve, John decided then that he would write a book about Crazy Horse, the great Lakota war chief.
Of course these are the dreams of most boys and after they grow up they realize that they can’t do them all. However, John says, “Hey, I never grew up.” Maybe that’s the reason he actually has seen the world, been a soldier, a cop, and a homicide detective. He followed that by becoming a highly successful coach and teacher. Then when he retired, he began to write books. One of the first of many books he has published is a historical fiction about Crazy Horse.
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And now from the author himself:
My name’s John Foxjohn, and in April of 2008, I was a successful fiction writer living in Lufkin, Texas. I’d toyed with the idea of writing a true crime, but there weren’t any cases sensational enough to write a book about, and living in a small town didn’t give me hope that a one would drop in my lap.
Kimberly Clark Saenz changed all that. The moment I heard that a DaVita nurse was being investigated for killing patients—a lot of patients—by injecting them with bleach, I knew that if these allegations were true, I not only had the case to write about, but I was the only one in a position to write it.
Because of my background as a detective, I knew that serial killing females were rare, and Lufkin or East Texas, had never had a serial killer, male or female.
As it happened, I knew people in the police department, and knew that the police would eventually charge her. However, my experience told me that this would not be an easy one. An internet friend who writes true crimes told me to try to get as much from the suspect, her family, and friends as possible because after the police brought charges they’d clam up. While the media wondered and waited, I was interviewing people. This turned out to be important because a lot of the people I interviewed before she was charged would no longer talk afterward.
It also gave me a chance to track and follow the family and friends of Saenz on Facebook and Myspace. Again, this would prove vital for obtaining information about them that they wouldn’t provide. The 237 interviews for the book Killer Nurse don’t include the information obtained by social media.
As it turned out, I was correct that it wouldn’t be easy to convict her. One of the huge problems the district attorney and detectives had was two witnesses saw Saenz inject patients with bleach. They also had scientific evidence that backed up what the witnesses said. The problem: the ones injected with the bleach that time, lived. The most she could be charged with in Texas was aggravated assault—a serious charge, but investigators thought she’d murdered several people.
The lead detective collected a lot of evidence—more than most would, and some might have even thought too much. But there is seldom too much ever collected. Because he went the extra mile in the investigation, prosecutors ended up with evidence to convict her of five murders and three aggravated assaults.
In Killer Nurse, I detail the extraordinary efforts the detective and the prosecutor went through to bring Kimberly Clark Saenz to justice and convict her in one of the most unique murder cases in history. This was the first time, at least in the United States, that someone used bleach as a murder weapon—a weapon at first blush that appeared to be a perfect one.
**
You can find more about John and his writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime novelist, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, John Foxjohn, Kobo, LinkedIn, Literary Festival, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, PJ Nunn, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and forty-third, is of novelist and short story Gila Green.
Canadian Gila Green’s debut novel KING OF THE CLASS was released April 2013 in Vancouver (Now or Never Publishing www.nonpublishing.com). She has published tens of short stories in literary journals in Canada, U.S.A., Australia, Hong Kong and Israel including Fiction Magazine, Many Mountains Moving, Nothing But Red Anthology, Jewish Fiction, The Dalhousie Review, The Saranac Review and Tel Aviv Stories.
Seven of her stories have been nominated for international awards including the Best New Writing Eric Hoffer Award, The Walrus Literary Award and the TenTen Fiction Contest. She has received two Canadian literary fellowships.
Her first collection WHITE ZION was nominated for the Doris Bakwin Literary Award (Carolina Wren Press). When she is not taking care of her family, she writes, teaches and edits fiction. She is also a writing instructor on the WOW-Women on Writing Site (www.wow-womenonwriting.com). Visit Gila: www.gilagreenonline.com.
*
And now from the author herself:
Betrayal in my debut novel, a futuristic satire titled, King of the Class
Betrayal is a theme that threads through my entire debut novel, King of the Class.
On a macro level, the setting of the novel is the post-civil war Israel of the future; an entire nation has engaged in betrayal against itself.
On a micro level, heroine Eve Vee goes to sleep one night engaged to her fiancé, Manny Meretzky, and wakes up to find he has not only disappeared physically, but spiritually. The Manny she wanted to accompany through life in effect no longer exists. He has erased his previous value system in exchange for another and his duplicity becomes a river of deceit Eve cannot seem to cross.
Eve neither acknowledges Manny’s nobility in seeking a more meaningful life nor admires his desire to distance himself from what he perceives to be a shallow, materialistic value system. When Eve looks at Manny it is only his betrayal in its rawest form that she can see (Seeing is another theme in this novel, but that’s for another post).
It is not long before Eve confronts the questions: Is self-loyalty or allegiance to someone you love a higher value?
As the story progresses, the question expands: Are we loyal to our children over our spouses? And ultimately, where do communities lie in this hierarchy? Are we steadfast with regards to faith and community over anything else?
I was motivated to explore this theme for many reasons, but a central thorn in my side was the ongoing divisions and increasing number of sub-divisions I see around me daily. In as much as we have become a “global village”, many of us also seem to thrive on an increasingly vicious and ultimately self-defeating discourse that demonizes anyone else who doesn’t agree with our specific value system. Eve needed the help of something far outside of herself to move forward, but that’s the freedom of fiction.
**
You can find more about Gila and her writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Gila Green, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and forty-second, is of multi-genre writer Jacob Singer.
Jacob Singer was born in Potchefstroom, South Africa. He schooled at the Central School, and Potchefstroom High School for Boys. After a three-month stint in the South African Navy as a ballottee, he went to London to study Pharmacy at Chelsea Polytechnic. It was there, after reading an article in the Readers Digest about the Tomlinson Report, that he realized the horror of the apartheid system in South Africa.
He became friendly with John Farmer, whose stepfather, Reg Sinclair was Chairman of Wilkinson Sword and Steel. They lived in Slough, and it was on a walk through the fields behind the house, after he and John walked to the top of a white tower, that they met a young girl who was hiding “from my security guards,” she said. A friendship was formed remembered to this day.
Returning to South Africa, five years later, he met and married Evelyn Jackson. Today they have 3 children and 7 grandchildren.
Living in Potchefstroom, a small town 72 miles from Johannesburg, Jacob became involved in the fight against the apartheid system of the National Party, that ruled the country after WWII. Believing that direct confrontation could never work, Jacob became a member of the National Party, at many meetings arguing and voting against the harsh laws being inflicted on the Indian and Coloured community in Potchefstroom. The National Party eventually asked for his resignation.
In his Pharmacy, he thumbed his nose at apartheid, by having Indian and Coloured staff working on the floor with the White staff, dressed in the same uniforms. Yes, he did make many enemies in the town, because of this, but he also made many friends. One of those friends was the Member of Parliament for Potchefstroom, Louis le Grange, a member of the National Party.
When years later, Louis was made Minister of Police, Jacob asked him, “Louis, after the horror of Sharpeville, and the death of Steve Biko, how can you accept this position?”
“Less people are killed, now that I am the Minister,” he answered.
A few years later, Jacob received a message from Louis, asking him to form a committee in Potchefstroom, to start educating the Africans that lived in Ikageng, the African township just outside the town.
“I would like you to start teaching them how to govern,” he wrote in a letter to Jacob. “Look for the leaders of the township, and meet with them at least once a month. They must learn committee procedures so that when they do take over the country, they will know how to manage and rule it effectively.”
Jacob formed a committee, with three friends. Seven Africans who were prominent leaders in Ikageng, joined them.
A year later, when in a riot, young students starting throwing stones at their school in Ikageng, he asked that all the leaders of these students meet in his pharmacy at 6 am the next morning. Five young children were there at 6 am. When they offered him their names, he told them, “No, I don’t want to know who you are. Let me call you A, B, C, D, and E.” He told them that education was very important to them, especially if they one day wished to rule the country; that rather than stone the school, they should stone Municipal Buildings or any building that housed a Government supporter.
After an hour, they left, promising that they would stop stoning the school.
Later that morning, Brigadier Stemmet of the South African Security Police visited the Pharmacy. He asked Jacob for the names of the 5 students that had visited him that morning. “With pleasure,” Jacob answered, “their names are A, B, C, D, and E.” Brigadier Stemmet walked out of the Pharmacy,
“We will no longer offer you or your family any protection!” he shouted angrily as he left the Pharmacy. That night, Gamboo, the families Bouvier dog was poisoned.
It was then that he encouraged his children to emigrate from South Africa. They chose Canada, and he and Evelyn joined them six years later once they had settled down, and no longer needed financial support.
It was then, leaving Potchefstroom and living in Johannesburg before emigrating to South Africa, that he wrote his first book Brakenstroom. Brakenstroom is a book of short stories about people he knew and stories he had heard from friends and family.
His second book, The VASE with the MANY COLOURED MARBLES was written while living in Vancouver, Canada. “It is a story I have lived with all my life,” he said when asked about the book. The Characters are people I knew, and still know.
*
And now from the author himself:
WHY I STARTED WRITING.
Growing up in South Africa as a child, was a wonderful experience. My mother loved and took care of me, but it was my Nanny that cleaned my room, made my bed, put away the clothes that I had left lying on the floor, and made my meals every day. She became my surrogate mother, walking me to school at 7 am every morning; playing with me when I came home from school, and making sure that I did my homework every day. It was only at supper time and weekends that I would spend time with my parents.
During the School holidays, when I was 15 years old, I would go to the Municipal swimming pool during the school holidays, intent on improving my swimming. Also, all my friends had gone to Habonim Camp at Leaches Bay in the Cape. It was then that I met Marla (not her true name). We would both spend the day at the pool, lying in the sun, burning a dark brown. When, at the end of the day, we would go to the local cinema, I could prove that I was a White, by showing my skin was white below my swimming costume line. Marla unfortunately could not. I had to have my father phone the manager and tell him that Marla was a White, and therefore could be let in.
It was years later that I met Marla’s mother, and listened to the story she told me. I have lived with it all my life, and decided that it was a story that had to be told.
It took me close to 5 years to write The VASE with the MANY COLOURED MARBLES. It is a story about Emily Kleintjies, how she jumped the racial barrier of apartheid, becoming a White, changing her name to Emma Kline. It was a difficult story to write bring back many painful memories.
Emily was classified by the South African race laws of that time as being a Coloured. In the 19th Century, the Coloured people of South Africa had similar rights to the Whites in the Cape Colony, though income and property qualifications affected them disproportionately. In the rest of South Africa, they had far fewer rights, and although the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910 gave them the right to vote, they were restricted to electing White representatives only.
“You must understand, Emily,” her father mumbled, “as part of the Coloured Community in South Africa, today we are classified as second class citizens by the government.”
“What does that mean?” Emily asked, not quite understanding what he was saying.
“You have grown up in District Six, amongst both Blacks and Whites, and you have been treated as equals by them. South Africa as a whole does not treat us as equals. The Whites come first, we the Coloureds with the Indians second, and the Blacks are at the bottom with the Coolies and Chinese somewhere in-between. When you go into Cape Town proper, you have seen benches marked, ‘For Whites Only.’ We as Coloureds are not allowed to sit on those benches.”
“But I have often sat on them, and no-one has bothered me,” Emily interrupted.
“I know,” her father answered, “that is because you were born with a lighter skin than any of us, and with hair that is light brown, long and straight. No White would think you were a Coloured. I know of many in our community who are angry at these laws, where the Whites squeeze us from the top, while the Blacks squeeze us from the bottom. We have to take cheap work, because the Whites do not believe that we are as clever as they are. They treat us like slaves, while many of our women are treated like whores at night, and our children age and die long before they should.”
After I had written it, I found an editor who made me rewrite the entire story. “You will write it as though you are writing a movie,” she advised. It took another year to rewrite.
I had written the book as two books. The first book was about Emma, the mother and the second book about Marla, the daughter. I was advised to combine both books into one book.
I had two friends read through the book, and check my facts. Once they had done this, I self published, after 15 publishers rejected the book. They all told me that in today’s world of eBook publishing, they were only publishing known authors.
**
You can find more about Jacob and his writing via… his website: www.jacobashersinger.com
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jack Singer, Jacob Singer, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and forty-first, is of non-fiction writer Dominick Domasky.
Dominick Domasky is a loving father, devoted husband, and a cold calling, door knocking insurance salesman by day. He started writing his first motivational book in 2005, which is now waiting for a final release date, and is due out this spring. The book is titled “Don’t Double Bread the Fish” and is a collection of humorous and touching stories about failure, persistence, and finding success.
Although Mr.Domasky started writing “Don’t Double Bread the Fish” in 2005, his tale begins long before that. He grew up pulling weeds, picking up cigarette butts, and doing all the odd jobs for the family landscape company. There he learned the value of hard work and that success wasn’t easily achieved or earned over night. Dominick carried those early lessons throughout his life from algebra to sales, and bench warming to business ownership. The only problem was he failed, over and over.
That being said, “Don’t Double Bread the Fish” is a story about letting No Failure Define You and never giving up. When Dominick began writing this book he was in financial ruins. The business he and his wife had invested everything in failed and left them with nearly a half million dollars in debt. While Dominick was trying to begin a new career and new chapter of his life he still bared the open wounds of the past. Each time it seemed like a fresh start was near, Dominick was reminded of that early lesson, success wasn’t easily achieved. For every step forward there were three steps backwards, from being hunted by the law to countless lawsuits. When Dominick and his wife Liz were able to finally bask in the glow of her new pregnancy after years and years of trying the IRS and creditors were calling demanding more. For every joy, another setback!
*
And now from the author himself:
I always asked myself, “How could a guy with my resume of stench like mine write a book about success?” I wrote for years and years, but I couldn’t answer that question. Then it hit me like a brick. I had always been searching for success, but Who Defines Success? What I learned is YOU DO! After years of setbacks, getting butter wiped in my hair, being punched in the face, getting cut from the team, weeding in the snow, filing bankruptcy, I learned No Failure Will Ever Define You (which is also chapter 39).
My dad bought me a book by Og Mandino when I was thirteen and paid me one hundred dollars to read it. My dad believed in its message so much he was willing to pay my sister and me a hundred beans at the chance the message might soak in. At the time I read the book just to pocket the hundred bucks, but guess what; A little seed was planted in me which dominated that book, my life and now Don’t Double Bread the Fish; that message is I must persist until I succeed.
I started writing my goals in a tiny notebook when management at my first sales job encouraged it. From that first day forward I continued to write my goals. Then soon after I begin to write about the people I had met and the lessons I had learned along the way all in that tiny notebook. For years I’d pull off the road to write a quick thought or sometimes even risk bodily harm to scribble an idea I deemed interesting while navigating the Pennsylvania highways. Then one late night I decided my notebooks weren’t good enough. I began transferring my thoughts letter by letter and line by line into my home computer. Being that I’m the worst typist in the world and not a writer by trade, the process to write the story I wanted to tell the world took years. Laughter, skepticism, and disbelief were just a normal part of the journey when I began to tell my family and friends I was writing a book. They laughed and I wrote. They doubted and I believed in me. The more they doubted the closer I got, the closer I got the more I believed in me.
Eventually after nearly seven years of working on my baby, “Don’t Double Bread the Fish” I was ready to share it with the world. I believed in myself and I found a publisher Motivational Press that does too. They’re a motivational publisher that’s supports their authors and I’m a guy who has shoveled a lot of ditches and believes he has something to say. I have a positive message I need to share and Motivational Press knows how to get it out to the world.
Keep your eyes peeled because “Don’t Double Bread the Fish” will be hitting book stores, clubs and the internet soon.” But before signing off, more important than looking for my book, if that’s meant to be it will happen; Remember this No Failure Will Ever Define You!”
**
Dominick Domasky can be found daily on Twitter @domd1000 tweeting messages of hope, persistence, and inspiration.
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, Dominick Domasky, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fortieth, is of multi-genre author Kathleen Kaska.
Kathleen Kaska writes fiction, nonfiction, travel articles, and stage plays. She has just completed her most challenging endeavor, The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert Porter Allen Story, a true tale about Audubon ornithologist Robert Porter Allen whose mission was to journey into the Canadian wilderness to save the last flock of whooping cranes before encroaching development wiped out their nesting site, sending them into extinction. Published by University Press of Florida, the book was released on September 16, 2012 and has been nominated for the George Perkins Marsh award for environment history and the Washington State Book Award for history / general nonfiction.
Kathleen also writes the award-winning Sydney Lockhart mystery series set in the 1950s when women were caught between the dichotomy of career and marriage; when fashion exploded with a never-before-seen flair; and movies and music had the country dancing with gusto. Her first mystery, Murder at the Arlington, won the 2008 Salvo Press Manuscript Contest. This book, along with her second mystery, Murder at the Luther, were selected as bonus-books for the Pulpwood Queens Book Group, the largest book group in the country. Murder at the Galvez was released on December 7, 2012.
Before bringing Sydney into the world of murder and mayhem, Kathleen published three mystery-trivia books in the Classic Triviography Mystery Series: The Agatha Christie Triviography and Quiz Book, The Alfred Hitchcock Triviography and Quiz Book , and The Sherlock Triviography and Quiz Book. The Alfred Hitchcock and the Sherlock Holmes trivia books are finalists for the 2013 EPIC award in nonfiction.
When she is not writing, Kathleen spends much of her time traveling the backroads and byways around the country, looking for new venues for her mysteries and bird watching along the Texas coast and beyond. It was her passion for birds that led to the publication The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane.
After graduating from University of Texas at Austin with a degree in physical anthropology, Kathleen taught middle-school science for 25 years. She was a staff writer for AustinFit magazine from 1997-2002. Her articles have appeared in Cape Cod Life, Marco Polo, Agatha Christie Chronicle, and Home Cooking Magazine. She is a frequent contributor to Texas Highways magazine.
When too road weary, she splits time between her two favorite places, the Pacific Northwest and the Texas Coast. It’s tough though, having been born with the original sin of wanderlust. Nonetheless, her laptop is nicely stowed in her bag and a bird-reference book and binoculars are always on the front seat.
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And now from the author herself:
Beginning, Middle, End Unknown
I didn’t start writing until I was almost forty. I was teaching at the time, and when I came to the point where I felt comfortable in the classroom, I finally decided it was time to write that book. I knew I wanted to write mysteries, but I also knew it was easier to break into publishing with nonfiction. Trivia books were becoming popular, and I decided to make use of my complete Agatha Christie collection by writing the Agatha Christie trivia book. I queried an agent, he signed me on as a client, and within a month we had a contract. I followed the Christie book with the Alfred Hitchcock trivia book, and then the Sherlock Holmes trivia book. What an education that was. In doing my research I had a chance to dissect and analyze books, short stories, plays, and screenplays written by Christie, Conan Doyle, and Hitchcock. All three books were picked up by a new publisher, LL-Publications in early 2012, and reissued last May.
When I began writing my own mysteries, the hardboiled detective writers, Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, Rex Stout, and Raymond Chandler, were my biggest influences. I modeled my protagonist, reporter Sydney Lockhart, after those wisecracking tough guys. I like to think of Sydney as a female Phillip Marlowe. She’s brash, bossy, and too outspoken for her town good. She stands five feet ten inches and has a head of wild curly red hair. Being a woman in a man’s work, she often disguises herself as a man in order to get her stories.
My series is set in the early 1950s. I chose this decade because it was a pivotal time for women in terms of lifestyle choices. I write about an independent woman, struggling to make it on her own, not an easy feat back then.
Each story takes Sydney on an assignment to a different historic hotel. The places I write about are real. The readers have an opportunity to travel back in time and discover what life was like in these old hotels. In my first book, Murder at the Arlington, which takes place at the Arlington Hotel in a Hot Springs, Arkansas, I write about the world of gambling and gangsters, which went underground after the town was cleaned up in the 1940s.
In book two, Murder at the Luther, Sydney is on the Texas coast covering the infamous New Year’s Eve Ball at the Luther Hotel in Palacios. Her celebration turns sour when finds herself dancing with a dead man. With her fingerprints on the murder weapon and a police chief who has his own agenda, Sydney ushers in the New Year behind bars. But the gal lands on her feet and soon there’s another hotel, another murder, and another attempt on Sydney’s life. When she discovers that the unsolved murder of her grandfather eighteen years earlier is linked to a string of killings in Galveston, Texas, Sydney finds herself smack dab in the middle of Murder at the Galvez.
I’m working on book four now. Sydney’s back home in Austin, Texas, so I selected the Driskill Hotel as the venue for murder. I’m excited about this book because Austin was my home for twenty-five years. My research allowed me to discover what the town was like in the 1950s before it grew to a city of almost a million.
Each hotel has a story to tell and I write that story into my mysteries. Look for Murder at the Driskill early next year.
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You can find more about Kathleen and her writing via…
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If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kathleen Kaska, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and thirty-ninth, is of Young Adult novelist Maria Bradley.
Maria Bradley has worked at a variety of professions but has never released any of her writing for publication until November 2012. Her First book ‘Four’s a crowd’ was published by Feedaread in paperback and as an eBook on Amazon Kindle a couple of weeks later. She writes primarily for Teens and frequently states that her three young adult children are her inspiration. Although she is not primarily a poet, she has recently been placed as one of the runners up in a poetry competition with her poem ‘Manchester’; a cheerful rendition about her home town in England and it’s appallingly wet weather.
On 22 March 2013 she released her second Teen novel ‘Only Human’ in the spirit of the Twilight series and The Vampire Diaries. She is currently volunteering and writing the sequels to both novels full-time.
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And now from the author herself:
I have always wanted to be a writer but have never really had the confidence to do it before now. Not that I’m in any way confident now, it’s just that I’ve realised that time is running out and my children are of an age where they can look after themselves to a certain degree.
I have worked as a Finance Clerk, Merchandiser, Sales Assistant, and Carer; more recently I’ve worked with special needs children and young adults. I love them all and continue to volunteer, but my real passion is for writing.
Writing a story opens up a world which is entirely controlled by the writer; it can be happy or sad, down-to-earth or mystical, heart-warming or terrifying. It is the most exciting and captivating use of time and is full of possibilities. A good story consumes the reader absolutely and leaves them bereft when they get to the end. I have read many stories like this and I hope that one day my stories will have the same effect. That is when I will feel that I have succeeded as an Author.
Now that I have finally ‘bitten the bullet’ and dived into the writing world, I can’t see myself doing anything else. I would say to any aspiring Author, and in fact, to everybody who is too shy or lacks the confidence to try and achieve their dreams, ‘Go for it! Don’t waste any time worrying if you are good enough or worry about what anyone else thinks, just do it now, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!’
Only Human
I have always been a fan of Vampire novels and thought it would be interesting to write about a vulnerable teenage girl living secretly in a vampire-dominated world. Being a teenage girl is difficult enough without the added danger of being discovered and ‘eaten’ at any given point within your nightly life. Aecia carries this burden alone until her desperate loneliness creates ‘Amica’ a blonde, blue eyed and carefree human friend whom she writes to in her diary. When she becomes involved with a real friend ‘Garok’ her life takes a disastrous turn for the worst but as her terrifying fears are realised she discovers that maybe she is not alone; with each catastrophic morsel of her life exploding into chaos she finds that her own birth has been the catalyst to events that will shake the foundations of the tyrannous vampire world forever.
Four’s A Crowd
My first project is called ‘Four’s A Crowd’ and began with someone I met many years ago when my own life was in a very dark place. ‘Chairman’ was an elderly gentleman who had absolutely nothing. He occasionally lived in a boarded up house and sometimes slept on an old mattress in the back of a rusty old van; not the kind of person you would expect to speak with a ‘Made in Chelsea’ accent, but he did. He was also extremely charming, polite and very content with his life. I will never forget his optimism and vigour. ‘Jack’ is a mixture of all the wonderful special needs children I have been fortunate enough to meet and work with. Nature has a way of affording particular and spectacular gifts to those who might be disadvantaged in another way. ‘Sky’ is my daughter, plain and simple; spirited, fiery, impulsive, stubborn, beautiful and kind.
These three unlikely friends meet by chance and are hurled into a murder mystery complicated by Chairman’s true identity, Jack’s unique and fascinating gift and Sky’s search for her lost mother. They must battle the narcissistic ‘Dr Rhinehart’ as he attempts to control their minds and confuse them with illusion. Throughout their rollercoaster adventure they slowly discover that the truth of all their pasts will become the thread that ties all of their futures together.
**
You can find more about Maria and her writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Maria Bradley, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and thirty-eighth, is of novelist and short story writer Jim Musgrave.
Jim Musgrave’s work has been recently featured in Best New Writing 2011, Hopewell Press, Titusville, New Jersey. He was a semi-finalist the Black Lawrence Press 2012 Chapbook Awards. He was also in a Bram Stoker Award Finalist volume of horror fiction, Beneath the Surface, 13 Shocking Tales of Terror, Shroud Publishing, San Francisco, California. His short story, “Zeru,” is published in Mixer. His science fiction was recently published in SciFi Short Story Magazine, Baton Rouge, LA. He has also published three novels and two collections of short stories at CIC Publishing. He is owner of English Majors Reviewers and Editors, LLC. Jim has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from San Diego State, and he teaches college English composition in San Diego where he lives with his wife Ellen.
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And now from the author himself:
I began my historical fiction mystery with the idea that Edgar Allan Poe did not die in Baltimore in 1849 from alcohol consumption. This “death by alcohol” was an accepted “fact” as told by many historians who did not believe the only man* who was with the great author during his final days on this earth. Instead, I chose to believe Dr. Moran, and this naturally grew into my building the murder mystery that I called Forevermore.
The detective hero in my mystery had to be someone who knew Poe and who wanted to prove that Poe was not a drunkard. That’s how I chose Patrick James O’Malley. I surmised that if O’Malley had a love for literature and had worked for Poe when O’Malley was a young man, then he would obviously want to prove that the great author did not die an inebriate in Baltimore. O’Malley needed to prove Poe was murdered because the Civil War vet had just begun his “private investigation” profession in New York City. This “cold case” would also help O’Malley show the world that the Irish (both O’Malley and Poe are Irish) are not a bunch of “drunkards and sots.”
I also must confess that I use a time-honored “formula” for mysteries which includes a four-act development leading to the resolution and solving of the crime. This formula can be explained with the following: 1. The murder happens. 2. The sleuth’s investigation goes down the wrong path. 3. The sub-plot involves a problem in the detective’s personal life and must be solved immediately prior to the solution of the mystery. 4. The mystery has a symbolic meaning represented by the famous story by Poe, “The Black Cat.”
I hope you enjoy my mini-mystery, and if you do, then please leave a review on the Amazon web site. Also, feel free to comment on the blog here on my site.
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You can find more about Jim and his writing via…
***
If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, Jim Musgrave, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Sarahjane Funnell is a children’s picture book author and also full time PR Officer for Lush Cosmetics.
So it’s been about 18 months since my last post on Morgen Bailey’s Writing Blog and it’s been a busy year and a half at that. My last post coincided with the launch of my debut picture book Phillipa Knickerbocker Glory and the Ice Cream Castle, independently published with Gibson Publishing (March 2012).
My first book Phillipa Knickerbocker Glory, launched at Waterstones Hastings during March 2013. This was the nearest bookshop to where the title was published in East Sussex. With the launch of my second title with the same publisher, I wanted to run the second book’s launch again with the same shop. The Phillipa Fairy Cake and the Secret Pets’ Tea Party launch took place on Saturday 15th June and the very talented Hastings team put together a wonderful event with a beautiful display of both book titles side by side. I then added some personal touches including character cut outs from the book and some imitation grass to emphasise the garden tea party theme.
The team at Hastings Waterstones including Lizzie, Laura and Linda, are absolutely lovely and so supportive – especially with the book being a local title, and that really matters to an author too – knowing you have the support of book experts behind you too.
