Author Spotlight no.205 – Joleene Naylor

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifth, is of fantasy, horror and paranormal writer Joleene Naylor.

Joleene Naylor grew up in southwest Iowa surrounded by soybeans, corn and very little entertainment – so she made her own. She has been writing and drawing since she was a small child, with a particular leaning towards fantasy, horror and paranormal. It is this love of all that goes bump in the night that led her to write the Amaranthine series.

In her spare time she is a freelance artist, book cover designer and photographer. Her current projects include the sixth novel in the Amaranthine vampire series, and The Executioner Tales, short stories about the vampire “police”.

Joleene maintains blogs full of odd ramblings and hopes to win the lottery. Until she does, she and her husband live near Bolivar Missouri with their miniature zoo. However, unless she starts buying tickets she won’t win anything.

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And now from the author herself:

As authors we love to talk about our inspirations, our trials, our tribulations and most of all our stories. But, sometimes I wonder just how much of that our readers are really interested in. Do fans of the dark, enigmatic Jorick or the mischievous and mysterious Verchiel want to hear what inspired the characters, or would they rather read those characters doing something?

I don’t think there’s any kind of universal answer. It varies from person to person, and even from book to book. For instance, I tend to ignore the special features on most DVDs, but when I got my copy of The Hobbit I not only watched every special feature, but made a Vudu account so I could watch four bonus featurettes. When it comes to that movie (or any in the Lord of the Rings franchise) I want to see how, why, when and I want to know the inspiration behind every fern and rock. I want to see every character’s shoes and I want to see every second of clipped footage. Why? If you ask my husband he’ll say it’s because I’m crazy, but the real reason is because it’s something I’m passionate about.

And that’s the same kind of passion that leads us, as writers, to share all the random trivia – the inspiration behind the scenes. We tweet it (OMG! I just wrote the coolest fight scene at an abandoned mountain temple #amwriting #vampires), we post it on Facebook and Pinterest (Ha ha! This makes me think of Maeko), we blog about it and we write guest posts. We share our thoughts, our ideas, and all the tidbits that might not have made it into the book because we have a passion, not only for the story and the characters, but also for sharing our ideas and thoughts.

That’s why we’re writing in the first place.

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You can find more about Joleene via…

• Her author blog: http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com
• FB author page: https://www.facebook.com/joleenenaylorbooks
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/joleene_naylor
• Website: http://JoleeneNaylor.com

And her writing…

• Newest – Heart of the Raven: http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/5-heart-of-the-raven
• The Amaranthine series: http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/amaranthine-vampire-series

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I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
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• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
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• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
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Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.