Celia and the Fairies Review

Karen McQuestion book Celia and the Fairies has gotten the AmazonEncore release, here is a review I wrote for the book

 You will Believe in magic once more, January 6, 2010


This book is so beautiful and uplifting for any age group reading it made me feel like i was a child again full of wonder and dreams with great characters and such a positive story stick with long after you read it Karen McQuestion has done it again. You will treasure having this book in your collection.

J.M. Pierce Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

Lately it has been during my lunch hour at my day job. It is nearly the only time of day that I have to be completely by myself. My office has served me well for sure!

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

Last year a friend and I were stranded at the Atlanta airport. I was in the middle of writing Failing Test at the time, and since I didn’t have my laptop with me, I bought a notebook and some pens and tried to write. I found it nearly impossible. I can type far faster than I can write and couldn’t keep from getting frustrated at the thoughts coming faster than I could get them out. So to answer your question, always on the computer.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Inspiration is everywhere. I find it sitting on the porch and watching the sunrise, the drive to work, even in my dreams. Recently, I took my family on a weekend vacation and had lunch at IHOP. The variety of people within this one building was amazing and I caught myself thinking about the possibilities of each person’s background and upbringing. I definitely got some ideas for characters that afternoon.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

I didn’t until just recently, and the only reason I did was simply because I got into a rut and wasn’t getting much writing done. I now have the very modest goal of 500 words per day, although I have been averaging 1500 to 2000 per day in the last couple of weeks. I have a wife and two kids that are absolutely my priority and I try not to let my writing interfere with their needs and wants.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

I am a self published author. I did have an agent last year that turned out to be the wrong one for me. Unfortunately, she was the only one to even look at me. After playing the querying game, I decided to give it a shot on my own. It was difficult because at one point I was one of those that had been brainwashed into thinking that it was writer’s suicide to self-publish. Instead of being narrow minded, I did my homework and found some amazing success stories. Are those stories common place? No, but neither are huge successes in the traditionally published world. I’m enjoying the community as it is filled with MANY wonderful people. There is no shortage of great and honest advice, as well as that sense of understanding that only someone going through this meat grinder of an industry can relate to. 

The cover was something I had in mind from the very beginning. It is actually my hand with a ton of work put into it digitally. I did it myself and actually had considering hiring someone to do a new cover recently, but FT’s fans quickly changed my mind for me when I asked for an opinion. The coolest response that I’ve had to the cover was from a woman that contacted me after she’d read the book. She said that she’d left it sitting on the coffee table after she’d finished reading it, and the next day while sitting on the couch, she looked at the cover and was in awe at how much it matched the vision she’d had in her head while reading. I’m sure it was a subconscious thing, but it was still neat to hear her comments.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I’ve always been a creative person. My life’s been a series of stages involving writing short stories, poetry, music, lyrics, and now novels. I love the release I get when writing. I can really feel my characters pleasures and pains, and for me, that is what literature is all about. I want to provide that release and disconnect from the real world to my readers. The real world can be such a weight at times that I love the thought of providing for someone else, what other authors have provided me.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

Currently I just have Kindle for PC. I am BEGGING Santa for a K3 this year, but would be more than okay with a used K2! I have a good number of books in my TBR right now on the PC, but it is difficult for me to read on the laptop. I do worry about missing the feel of holding a book when I do get my Kindle, but I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get there!

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and what are you reading now?

I love John Steinbeck. Of Mice and Men was the first book I read of his and I really felt every ounce of emotion that his characters were burdened with. For the rest of that year, I was a Steinbeck hoarder and devoured everything that my school library had.

As I grew older, I got hooked on Michael Crichton. I am a bit of a science geek and I loved how everything in his books carried that air of possibility. It was fantastic!

I have honestly enjoyed Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga, though that seems quite the unpopular thing to say amongst most author’s circles; but hey, everyone’s got their guilty pleasures right?

I am currently not reading anything as I am trying to get my current work in progress finished. If I start a book, especially if it’s a good one, then I won’t get any writing done. I have so little spare time that I have to use it wisely. Now, when I’m finished with the book, I’ll be reading like an ice cream junkie eating ice cream in a Baskin Robbins! First up on my TBR is Portal by Imogen Rose, followed by David McAfee’s 33 a.d.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I do like book trailers…for the most part. I have one, but it isn’t anything that I’m glowing with pride over.  I would have to say that the best one I’ve seen in a while was for Amanda Hocking’s “My Blood Approves”. Whoever she got to do it did a nice job.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

The title came fairly easily after the main characters name, Test Davis, popped into my head. It was a neat play on words and really fit the story quite well. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but by the product description alone it’s obvious that Test’s life is not ideal and not all of it is his fault.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been working on the sequel to Failing Test titled “A Shadow’s Light”. I was approximately 70% finished with it when my muse stepped in with another idea that he demanded be done first! Seriously, I couldn’t stop thinking about this new project so after fighting it for several weeks, I gave in. The book is titled Duality and is in a different vein than Failing Test or A Shadow’s Light. It is a much darker story with psychological twists and thought provoking undertones. It is definitely not going to be for the younger YA crowds. I have already hired a cover artist for Duality and I am striving to have it published in late October, as well as having A Shadow’s Light published around Christmas time. There’s a lot of work to be done, but I think I’m up for the challenge. I have several other idea and starts down on the keys, but need to keep that muse at bay so I can finish my current work in process!

Here is my blog link:

http://failingtest.blogspot.com/

And here is the link to my Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jm-Pierce-Author/100001532323315#!/profile.php?id=100001532323315&v=wall

Philip Chen Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write? 

I find that early morning is my best time to write these days.  I am not a professional writer and distractions are easily had.  That said, when I do write, I find that words will flow naturally as though my characters were in a conversation with me.  When I do get into a session of writing that is often all that I can think about.  This is a trait that annoys those around me.  Consequently during the early morning hours, when the house is quiet, and the only sounds are the ones playing on my head phone, turns out to be a great time for writing.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

I usually think a lot about particular situations that my characters will be placed into.  Then I just write directly on the computer.  The advantage, of course, is the delete button.  I started writing in 1990 on a Compaq Aero that I was carrying for business.  I will resort to paper to do things like diagramming the story to make sure that I haven't developed time or logic gaps.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

My novel, Falling Star, came about after I had a series of vivid dreams in 1990 about apocalyptic events in America.  In these dreams, I was witness to terrible destruction by gangs of what looked like ordinary Americans wreaking havoc against our institutions.  These so-called citizens were actually agents of a foreign power who hid in the open for decades using adopted persona.  They lived mundane lives under ordered to strike.  As I started writing, the story developed and certain characters started coming forward with their stories.

One of them, Mike, started out as the central character, but others soon gained strength and Mike over time became one of several principal characters.  I write about events and places familiar to me.  For example, I worked as an ocean research engineer helping in the development of deep submergence systems when I first graduated with a Master of Science degree from Stanford University.  The deep ocean then became the venue for much of this story.

I drew upon my personal struggles in our society and my love for the University of Virginia to give my character Mike a persona.  This was fortuitous, as you will learn on reading Falling Star, as Mike's personal struggles became the key to the solving this mystery.

One of my favorite characters in Falling Star is Mildred, a sweet Norwegian grandmother who harbors a deep, dark secret and who is especially adept at her chosen art.  I am married to a Norwegian-American though I doubt that my wife has the same proclivities as Mildred; at least I hope not.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

No.  As a consequence there are long stretches of no output, but I am constantly thinking about the story line as in the sequel to Falling Star.  When I do start to write, I cannot put it down easily.  It is as though I am engaged in a conversation with my characters and it would be impolite to break off midstream.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

As I am fond of saying: "I endured the slings and arrows of outrageous rejection from righteous agents and publishers for many years".  I tried to get people interested for years in Falling Star, but received nothing but form letters and the occasional polite rejection note.  I guess they all thought my premise that spies could actually live for decades in the open in America and do things like marry, have families, grow hydrangeas, hold down ordinary jobs, assume the identities of dead people, and even be financial consultants was too ridiculous and fanciful to be real.  After all, things like that just don't happen in America.

When the news stories about Russian agents hiding amongst us in the open broke this year, I decided to get this story out and chanced on Kindle as a way to do it.  Just to establish my credentials in this regard, I first wroteFalling Star in 1990-1991 and copyrighted it with the Library of Congress in, I think, 1993.  In addition, I have been posting excerpts of Falling Star on the online site Scribd since May 2009 (http://scribd.com/PhilC68).  I want to publish the novel now just in case any more of the things I write about actually come to pass in the future.

When I published on Amazon, it was recommended that I have a cover.  Being concerned about copyright, I searched for personal photos and other art that I could use and put one together.  I regularly post on a community message board in my town and when I posted my cover image, it was roundly dismissed as amateurish.  Then one of the moderators of Maplewood Online, David Ross, a corporate logo designer, posted his version of what he thought the cover should look like; in an instant I knew that David had captured the essence of Falling Star.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I had this story that needed to get out.  Writing has always been an avocation because things such as eating, housing, educating children, and the like seemed to demand a far greater portion of my daily pursuit.  Now that I have been forcibly retired, I can devote more of my time to this nascent career (can I say nascent to describe something that I have doing for twenty years?).  I am very pleased by the reviews that I have received in such a short time on Amazon.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

I do not.  I installed a Kindle reader on my computer.  If I can stabilize my retirement income, I would love to have one.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

My favorite author is Ernest Hemingway.  I also enjoy William Faulkner, J.D. Salinger, and Tom Clancy (early books).  My personal favorite reading tends more toward factual writing and I particularly like John McPhee's books about various places and things.  I enjoy humorists mostly and am an avid reader of cartoon books.  I started cartooning in 2007 when I was ordered by my cardiologist to sit quietly over a weekend because he thought I might pop a pipe (turned out to not be the case).  My cartoons can be found on my community message board, Soundings: Puget Sound Speaks, at http://pugetsoundsepeaks.com.

I recently finished reading W.E.B. Griffin's Special Ops: A Brotherhood of War.  Robin Hathaway, the noted mystery author, told me that she thought my writing style was very similar to his and recommended that I read some of his books.  She left a very nice review of Falling Star on Amazon.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I was advised by a friend who consults in social media that I should use YouTube as a way to advertise my book.  I went onto a music composing site to write some music for what was essentially a PowerPoint presentation despite the fact that I am probably tone-deaf.  Two of the members of the JamStudio forum took one look at my clumsy video and volunteered to rewrite it.  They produced a professional looking book trailer and gave me rights to use it.  The result is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drPa1EBQthg.  The trailer was produced by Glenn Albert and the music is by Wyatt Lamoureux.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

It just came to me.  It was probably a result of the mysterious objects buried deep in the ocean and how they got there and the fact that following the breakup of the Soviet Union our nation started worrying about things like asteroids named Nemesis coming out of nowhere to destroy our planet.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I am resurrecting my sequel to Falling Star.  In this sequel Mike is now back in the secret agency on a full time basis and must deal with the consequences that arose in Falling Star.  I also have a story about growing up as a Chinese American in Washington, D.C., during the fifties and sixties called, Home to the Middle Kingdom.  The first draft of that book is finished, but it needs a lot of work.  And if I say it needs a lot of work; it needs a lot of work.

I have a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=106695884228&ref=ts

I am in the process of developing a blog at http://fallingstar1970.wordpress.com/

I spend a lot of my time on my community message board, 
Soundings: Puget Sound Speaks at http://pugetsoundspeaks.com

New Five Star review

Review by: Jess C Scott on Aug. 27, 2010 :     
I enjoyed being led through the story, paragraph by paragraph...the author certainly has a skill with imagery. Personally, I don't really dig it if/when a writer starts to get a little (or not) bit "over the top" with descriptions--"and she was filled with an inner darkness, black and dark as an oil slick" (from a recently published YA novel--won't say which!)--Mr. Speicher's descriptions are more lyrical. He has an understanding of what good poetry is (most Poe fans do, while those who detest Poe usually don't--c'mon, Edgar Allan Poe's THE MAN, admit it *insert smiley face*).

P.S. Visually (if this were to be translated onto a screen), it could potentially be something very "eerily other-worldly" to view/experience (and I don't mean "other-worldly" in the paranormal-creatures sense--this is something greater/that covers more scope than a genre category).


https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16596

Not What She Seems Review

 If Hitchcock were still alive, August 27, 2010




This book has a excellent cast of characters that will keep you guessing till the very end, each filled with secrets of the past. A beautiful single mother is on the run, befriends a successful bachelor who is also on the run to find true happiness, and a taste of life. You wont know who to trust.

It's a story Hitchcock would of made a masterpiece film from, I look forward to reading more from this talented author.

Not What She Seems by Victorine E. Lieske
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has a excellent cast of characters that will keep you guessing till the very end, each filled with secrets of the past. A beautiful single mother is on the run, befriends a successful bachelor who is also on the run to find true happiness, and a taste of life. You wont know who to trust.

It's a story Hitchcock would of made a masterpiece film from, I look forward to reading more from this talented author.


View all my reviews

The Song of Ballad and Crescendo Review

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetic Beauty, August 27, 2010

Another great read from an amazing author. This heart warming fable takes place in a time when the world is covered in stones for the sky. It is a story of love, and taking a chance. As humans we are all afraid to take chances not knowing the outcome of things. Something bad might happen, or maybe it will enlighten our lives and the lives of others forever.

This book takes a look at things we take for granted and shows us what we are missing even if it is right in front of us. The book has beautiful photos that play in harmony with the poetic words that share the page. This is the reason to own a Kindle to find stories like this that will enrich our lives.

An amazing author this book is just as magic as his first book (The White Hairs)

In Decline Trailer (Official eBook Trailer #2 - the uplifting cut)

Claire Farrell Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write? 

I am most productive late at night through to the early hours of the morning. It’s the only time my home is quiet so I try to make the most of it. 

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

Most of my writing is done by computer. I sometimes write brief outlines on paper and take small notes as the story progresses but for the most part I prefer to use a computer as it is easier to edit and/or create alternative versions of scenes. I take full advantage of the copy and paste features!

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Inspiration can come from any source, songs, newspaper articles, even dreams but if I’m purposely trying to write a certain story, I think of a character I would like to read about and go from there. 

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

I don’t put pressure on myself but I like to at least finish a scene. I tend to push myself into finishing a chapter if I have the time. I’m a big believer in making yourself write frequently and don’t suffer from blocks so the only thing stopping me is time. I set word count goals during Nanowrimo or if I’m in a hurry to finish a first draft.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

I am self published; I started in March of this year and would like to continue. I like having complete control and enjoy all aspects of self publishing. I have never submitted queries or manuscripts to an agent or publishing house and rely on the opinions and feedback from readers instead before I publish a story. In the future I would love to hire an artist to create a cover for me but for now, I have to make my own covers. Generally using royalty free images and a picture editing program. 

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I wouldn’t say writing is something I chose. I can’t be truly happy without writing creatively so I don’t feel like I have a choice. I can’t sleep if inspiration hits and have learned the hard way I need to get the story finished to have any peace. I’ve a lot of unedited works on my laptop, usually written while I was supposed to be working on something else. It’s something I enjoy and something I want to get better at. I started uploading books to Kindle to see if writing was something I could do full time. 

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

I own a Sony ereader and hope to get a Kindle soon.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

I don’t really have many favourite authors in particular. I am a huge fan of Charlotte Bronte and I quite like Patricia Briggs and Trudi Canavan. I enjoy Jonathan Kellerman’s earlier books. I haven’t read a book since I had a baby in July but I’ve just added a couple of young adult books to my ereader including Glimpse, Hush Money, My Blood Approves and Portal so one of those will be next on my list.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I’m not swayed either way by book trailers personally but I would love it if someone who enjoyed my next young adult novel created one. I would get a kick out of that.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

I struggle to come up with titles. For my horror short story collection, A Little Girl In My Room & Other Stories, I simply used the name of one of the stories. For my paranormal novella, I used a theme that ran through the story and I’m still working on a title for the first part of a young adult series I’m writing but each story should have a title that begins Cursed With . . .

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I’m very excited about my current projects and hope to have at least one released before December. Although I have a lot of stories finished and half finished, I’m working on three main projects. All three fall into the paranormal side of things. When I finish these I will probably take a break from this genre and return to darker fiction.

My “baby” is a y/a paranormal romance. It’s my take on a werewolf story but the focus is mainly on ordinary people who experience extraordinary things. I love this story and uploaded an old draft to Wattpad. It isn’t ready for Kindle yet as I am still on the lookout for beta readers and volunteers to help me improve it. It’s possible that this one will never be for sale.

Next is a novella. The main character is an OCD vampire hybrid with a human stalker and I’m having a lot of fun with it. :)

Last but not least is a y/a novel inspired by my short ebook called One Night With The Fae. I didn’t plan on carrying on with the story but I found I wanted to know what happened next. Inspiration kept hitting me and I liked the ideas so decided to develop it further. It is a dark fantasy about faeries, reincarnation and two souls sharing a body. I’m Irish and enjoyed being able to dip into some Irish mythology for this story.


https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/10979

http://claire-farrell.blogspot.com/