Monday, January 31, 2011

Earle E. Van Gilder Interview




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

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?
I begin with my initial thought and capture it immediately on the computer.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?
My writing is based loosely on past experiences.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?
None, I set no goal and frequently have no idea where the story is going.  Sometimes I even surprise myself.  I do tend to totally lose track of time.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?
Said The Spider is self-published through Outskirts and was a joint effort in cover art.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?
My time now since retirement allows me the freedom to express, to write and re-write as needed.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?
No.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?
Larry McMurtry, John Ross and Allan Eckert are current favorites.  Right now I am reading Miyamoto Musashi – His Life and Writings by Kenji Tokitsu who was an undefeated swordsman, master of battlefield strategy and martial arts icon from the 1600’s in Japan.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?
No plan.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?
It seemed to flow with the story line and I had no need to consider other titles.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?
I’ve completed two (2) more in series to the original, Gumshoe Diary and Point of Connection which continue to follow many of the same characters from Said The SpiderGumshoe Diary closely follows the characters with new and different adventures.  Point of Connection follows the plans that began threatening our society in the 60’s and continues to the present as the plans dangers that threaten our society take shape.  




Chris Blewitt Interview



1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?
-       Generally first thing in the morning, although with three kids, that’s getting to be more difficult.  Deep Rough was finished before my first son was born, waking up at 5:30am everyday and getting in 90 minutes of writing before the workday started. 

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?
-       It’s always been on a computer.  Carrying a Blackberry helps me jot down ideas wherever I am.  Then, whenever I have the time, I’ll put these ideas into words on my computer.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?
-       I am a big fan of the thriller genre.  I read constantly and I’m usually never without a book.  I’m always thinking, What if?  What if X happened and Y discovered it?  What if Z happened and set in motion AB & C?

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?
-       Not usually.  I write until a critical point in the book or chapter is reached then I stop.  Then I’ll think about how that point affects other characters in the story of another chain of events.  I’m trying to finish my next book by my birthday in February.  That will come out to about 1500 words a day.  That’s the plan at least!

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?
-       I am self-published after years of rejection.  I thought to myself, I have a pretty good story here and it’s now or never.  My good friend at Tisha Creative, Joe Mindak, created the cover for me and I owe him a beer next time I see him.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?
-       The freedom to write anything you want.  I have all these stories in my head that I would love to get down on paper and have people read them.  Working from home and setting your own hours wouldn’t be too bad either.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?
-       Yes, I just received the Kindle as a gift for Christmas.  I just downloaded my first book and I’m very happy with it so far.  It’s too easy.  Not sure I’ll ever go back to paper books unless someone lends me a book.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?
-       I enjoy John Sandford, Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly, T. Jefferson Parker, Grisham, Dan Brown.  I just started The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in my Kindle.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?
-       For Deep Rough I don’t have a trailer.  I think I would be infringing on some copyright laws if I had video or pictures from Augusta National.  I’ve seen a couple and some are great and some are so-so.  If they’re done well, I think they can be very beneficial for promoting your book.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?
-       Good question.  I wanted to portray a golf theme as well as a mystery or thriller.  Deep Rough has both elements.  I actually had the title long before the book was finished.  Now, my next novel is almost finished and I don’t have a working title yet.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?
-       I am about 2/3 of the way through another thriller.  I am staying away from the sports genre because it caters to too small of an audience.  I really enjoy learning about colonial times so this book is set in the present day but there are some flashbacks to the late 1700’s.  A thriller that takes the reader on a hunt to historical places and sets in motion a discovery that could expose a dangerous secret from the past. 

I’ll soon be posting my updates on the new novel on my website, www.chrisblewitt.com

Thanks for having me Kipp.


Tuesday, January 25, 2011

I was interviewed on The Literary World of Tom Raimbault




Check out my new interview about writing, creativity, and other insane babble

http://talkaboutafterhours.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-with-kipp-poe-speicher.html?spref=fb

Julie Christensen Interview






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

I write best in the mornings, when my mind is sharp.  I love sitting in a quiet room with a cup of very strong coffee, my characters poised in my head and ready to start interacting again.  Unfortunately, these days I rarely get an early morning to myself unless I’m up before 5AM.  That’s because I’m the mother of a 2 and 3 year old and I also work full-time.  So I generally save my writing until weeknights, after bedtime or weekend afternoons, when the kids are upstairs having “quiet time.”  If they are quiet, I can write.  If they spend the time calling downstairs to use the potty, etc, I never get into my writing zone, and my characters have to wait for another day.

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

Paper and pen.  In fact, I filled three spiral notebooks writing Searching For Meredith Love by hand.  With my latest novel, I began with a pen, but edited as I typed it into my computer.  I’m going to try typing directly into my laptop, the next time I sit down to work on it, actually.  I’ll have to see how that goes.  I’m worried that I’m going to get a lot of garbage that way – writing by hand seems to make me more thoughtful, but time will tell.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

I’m not completely sure.  When all the planets are aligned, an idea pops into my head and I go for it. The Truth About Dating was based on my life.  In fact, it could have been a memoir, except I had to add some made-up stuff like visits from old flames, because the tedium of dating online would have made everyone stop reading, and possibly weep.  Searching For Meredith Love was inspired by life in New Mexico, but I can’t say where the character Meredith came from.  She just appeared in my head.

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

No, never.  I just write until I get bored.  When I’m bored, I write boring stuff, so I walk away and come back to it another day.

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

I’m a self-published author on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles.  My degree is in art, so, for The Truth About Dating, I designed a cover and asked a graphic designer friend, Jennifer Maginn, to add the type.  She did, but also created her own cover, which was so much better than mine that I used it.  For Searching For Meredith Love, I did the painting and Jennifer did the layout and type.  I wanted a painterly cover that screamed “southwest.”

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

I never thought about having a career in writing.  I was always going to be an artist.  But I’ve loved to write since elementary school.  I’m not sure why I started writing my first book, Searching For Meredith Love.  It began as a writing exercise in a class.  A group of us from that class formed a writing group and somehow a book came out of it.  The Truth About Dating began in much the same way.  I wrote funny little essays about my terrible dating experiences and then started putting them together to for a book.  After years of rejections from literary agents for both novels, I never thought I’d write another book.  But now that my books are doing so well online, I’ve already started on another, and I’m loving every minute of it!

7: Do you own an ebook reading device? 

I own a Kindle, but I think the Nook looks great too, and I like how you can borrow library books on the Nook.

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

I love Isabel Allende, Maxine Hong Kingston, Kurt Vonnegut, Emily Bronte, Atul Gawande, Laurie King, and many, many others.  I’m currently reading a book by an indie author, Hard Day’s Knight by John G. Hartness.  It’s about a Private Investigator who is a vampire - not my usual genre but I’m enjoying it.

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

I haven’t researched them much, mainly because I don’t have a lot of free time and figuring out how to film and upload a trailer will take an un-tech-savvy person like me weeks and weeks of work.  That said, I think that anything that gets people to read your book is a good idea.       

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

I spent ages trying to come up with a good title for Searching For Meredith Love.  I wanted to convey the idea of someone finding her better self.  I thought of Witching Waters, based on the people who use sticks to find water in the desert.  I had all kinds of titles like that.  Finally, the idea of searching popped forward and then I had my title.  The Truth About Dating was much easier.  I wrote that book with the goal of telling my married friends the truth about dating, so you could say I had the title before I had the book.   

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?
 
My latest novel is a mystery.  It’s set in Brooklyn, and the protagonist is a writer.  And because it’s a mystery, I’ve already mapped out the whole story.  In the past, I never used an outline; I wrote in a style that Anne Lamott equates to driving at night: you can’t see the whole road, just what your lights illuminate. But I’m having fun with this new style and looking forward to seeing how it works.  I’ve also had several reviewers for Searching For Meredith Love say they’d like to read a sequel.  I’ve never considered doing that, but now I’m toying with that idea, too.  The sequel idea needs to marinate for a while – it may amount to nothing.


Searching For Meredith Love - Amazon
Searching for Meredith Love - Barnes and Noble
The Truth About Dating -  Amazon
The Truth About Dating - Barnes and Noble





Saturday, January 22, 2011

Katie Klein Interview




1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?
It depends on how inspired I'm feeling, and what I'm doing at the time. I'm a mom, so my best times for writing are usually when my daughter is at school, or after she goes to bed. There are so many things going on at any given moment; I've learned it's important to be as flexible as possible. Those spare minutes must be used wisely!
2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?
It varies from project to project. I usually brainstorm with pen and paper. I'll fill up pages and pages of notebook paper trying to get my ideas down. When it comes time to write, though, it's all on computer. My brain moves way too fast for my writing hand to ever keep up.
3: What do you draw inspiration from?
Everywhere! Especially movies/tv, conversations with people, music, artwork. . . . I try not to overanalyze everything, but I'm always asking "what if," and expanding on what I'm seeing/hearing.
4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?
I like to have an idea in mind of what I want to accomplish when I sit down to write. I'm happy if I can write one full scene a day, though (between 1,000-2,000 words). If I try to push further, I find that my brain shuts down.
5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?
I am both a traditionally published author and an indie. My indie novel is written under a pen name. I didn't have any input on the cover of my traditionally published novel, so I was kind of excited to have full control over the cover of THE GUARDIAN. I do have  a tiny bit of graphic design experience, so when it came time to design it, I just studied the various covers on my shelves and tried to pull in elements that I liked.
6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?
Writing chose me, I think. I was always telling stories as a kid and writing down story ideas, naming characters, etc. It wasn't until I was in college, though, that I really began to think I could be a writer for a living. The job has its ups and downs, but I can't imagine doing anything else. Even on the worst days, I always come back to the story; it's in me, and I have to get it out.
7: Do you own an ebook reading device?
Not yet, but it's coming soon. J
8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?
I read mostly YA (young adult) fiction. Some of my favorite authors include Sarah Dessen, Stephenie Meyer (of course!), Libba Bray and Anna Godbersen. Right now I have Garcia and Stohl (BEAUTIFUL CREATURES), Deb Caletti, Susane Colasanti, Becca Fitzpatrick, and Courtney Summers in my To Be Read pile.
9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?
I like book trailers, actually, and I've made one for the Guardian. It's something quick I did with Animoto. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDKdnrYIRRM
If done correctly, I think they add to the appeal of a novel.
10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?
I knew I wanted to write about a young girl's relationship with her Guardian Angel. Instead of angels, through, they call themselves Guardians. It was easy to come up with the title from there, and it says everything. J
11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?
I just finished revisions on another young adult manuscript (contemporary realistic), so I'm trying to decide which route to take as far as publishing goes. Otherwise, I've already drafted an outline for a sequel to The Guardian. I plan to start working on that very soon. If I can get it uploaded as an ebook by summer, I'll be happy.
Thank you so much for letting me drop by!

Monday, January 17, 2011

D.N. Lyons (But please call me Nicki.) Interview





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

I have hypergraphia, Kipp, so I end up writing very productively at various times. Unfortunately, it also means that if I write 5000 words in about an hour (no joke), I’ve gotten myself worked up on the story enough that I’ve ruined a night I might have had planned.

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

I actually start them drawing, not writing! ^_^  I set up some sort of scene for a book cover, and then an idea tips me over onto the computer, where I use a programme called Q10. It’s a plain text editor (think Notepad) with the compatibility of color-changing, sound-changing, font changing, a timer and a spell checker. (http://www.baara.com/q10 )

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Various places. I once started a story from the first line of a fan-fiction. ^_^

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

No, because from August 8th to August 10th of 2010, I wrote a 56,000 word novel. I didn’t intend to----I actually wanted to take that week off.

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

I was published with Freya’s Bower (http://www.freyasbower.com/), and they were good enough to come up with the cover art, which turns out to be a Greco-Roman artifact in the background with a fine font face in front (say that five times fast ^_^).

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

Not the money, that’s for sure! I’ve barely sold fifty copies if that. But the fact of the matter lies that I’ve been a storyteller since I was a child, my imagination takes me literally out of reality sometimes, and I almost failed high school and junior high because I was writing when I should have been working. If something takes that much time, it must be a sign.... (whistles nonchalantly)

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

No, but the Kindle 3 is on my wish list. Ironic, hmm? I was e-published with a Kindle edition, and I don’t even have a Kindle.... o_o;;

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

Huge plug. FB’s site, WCP’s site, MLR’s site, they’ve all got great authors with wonderful writing. (MLR Press actually was started by a friend, Laura Baumbach.) But on the personal note, Kayelle Allen, Tabitha Shay, Jerry Race, they’ve been in a tightly-knit fabric of awesome in terms of inspiration for me, and their books kick ever-loving tail too.

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

HAHAHAHAHA! (Sorry, not laughing at you.) I actually DID make a book trailer on Youtube! It kind of stinks, but if you look for the account “StarWizardGanymede”, and the trailer for “What Flavor Are You?”, you might still find it. Unless of course, Janet Jackson objects to me using her song “Feedback” with some cruddy drawings I made on MS Paint.... (Not that I’m taking credit for anything but the drawings and the book, though.)

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

Well, I thought of Popsicles first, because in my series world, there’s quite a few people who are treats of a different flavor entirely. And it happened to be a hot time of the year at the moment, and I said to myself,

“You know, I wish I had a Popsicle right now. But what flavor would I eat?”

And so the title, “What Flavor Are You?” was born.

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

The first three novels of my Neptune series are about ready for publication, and I’d really love to get the Mantle series up and running. But first I have a short story about Cupid and Venus that’s kind of fun, generally lacking the *ASPLODEY POOF* “Destruction of LOGIC and PHYSICS!” that most paranormals seem to have. I like my characters to “relate” to humans while at the same time being sufficiently different.

I mean, come on. Wizards, Trolls, Elves, giant-walking-mushroom-people, they’re PEOPLE. Whether or not they can shoot fire out of their fingers is irrelevant...and who says a dragon is any easier to housebreak than a piddle-minded Chihuahua? No amount of magic could make ME want to do it. xD



If you’d like to visit me online, my blog site is:


(But keep in mind my age, which is 25. I’m a Super Mario baby with a Sonic the Hedgehog mindset. Meaning, I’m not exactly the current generation, but I’m darn close, and my language might be somewhat off-putting in a few of my more “enthusiastic” posts.)


Thanks for having me, Kipp, I really appreciate it!

~ D.N. Lyons (But please call me Nicki.)


Sunday, January 16, 2011

Wyatt Bryson Interview




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

The most productive time for me is late at night. Since I’m not a morning person, late at night means after 2 a.m. However, if I’ve had a night at the club, getting anything creative written doesn’t really work. What I can do is go over my stuff and do editing and copy-editing because that process is rote and can be done with a bit of a buzz.

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

I take notes in a note pad I keep in my pocket as ideas come to mind. I only take notes on paper. I do all actual writing and editing on the computer. It is easier to move things around and make corrections that way. I also occasionally e-mail myself ideas and move them to a folder for future reference.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

I draw a lot of inspiration from observing things going on around me. A lot of what I write is on issues of multiculturalism and racism. Since I live in the south, there is no shortage of observations when it comes to those subjects.

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

No. I often sit down wanting to write so many words or pages, but I refuse to force pages out when they may not be going in the right direction. I would rather work an idea or part over in my head and get a general direction I want to go in instead of writing a bunch of pages that don’t fit or have to be deleted later. I feel that if it isn’t working then don’t work on it that day. If it begins to flow then put as much time into it as you feel comfortable in doing.

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

My original stance was to find a traditional brick and mortar publisher. After two years of having my first novel sit on the shelf (figuratively) and my second to begin to do the same, I decided I’d rather self-publish and get it out there for others to see. Ironically as I have gotten to know other self-published authors and had conversations with people in general, I’ve learned that self-publishing is probably the next big thing. I’ve been told that the next big author will probably be discovered online.

Unfortunately I’m barely living check to check, so paying for cover art isn’t possible. My covers might be simple and not exactly the images that I had in mind, but they serve their purpose. I have to sit down with Photoshop and try to bring the right images together. If you self-publish on Kindle, they also have some cover creation tools. The cover of my second novel shows five masks, each with a simple on the forehead of the mask. These masks and symbols link to characters in the novel.

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

This has always been my dream. I have poetry that I wrote when I was five years old. There has never been a question that this is my chosen path. It was only a matter of deciding what I wanted to write about and sitting down and doing so to get it started. As far as making it a career, I hope that comes to fruition one day. It would truly be a gift to give up my day job and do this for a living.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

I do not, but I have downloaded a few for PC just to see if I formatted my novels correctly for their devices. I have noticed that my sales on electronic devices far surpass my print sales, but I guess I’m a little more traditional. I need to have a print copy in my hands. I can’t see reading a novel on a phone, but I could see reading it on a tablet. Of course, if I owned a Kindle, I might have a completely different view on this.

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

My favorite authors are Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor. Currently I am not reading anything. I am working on my next project and I don’t want to have something I’m reading to start influencing what I am writing. I’d hate to inadvertently pick up on someone else’s work and pull it into mine. So when I am working on a project, I don’t read anything else. Well, that was my stance when I wrote the first two novels anyway. I now have a comfort level with the direction that I am going to believe that I could take breaks and read other things.

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

I do not currently have any book trailers, nor have I actually seen anybody’s book trailers. I don’t plan on creating one, but I am open to it.

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

My novels are not sequels or prequels, but they are within the same universe. The first novel gave a sorority a small part. When I finished it, the second novel screamed to be about that sorority. The title of my second novel is ‘Onyx and Eggshell.’ Onyx and eggshell are the colors of the sorority that the second novel is written around.

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

The third novel will deal with subjects along the same lines of the first two. I plan to have it mostly set in a restaurant bar. I’d like to have it out in the next few months but haven’t sat down to really put major work into it.



Friday, January 14, 2011

Tales of the Dim Knight by Adam & Andrea Graham

THE KENSEI by Jon F. Merz - Official Book Trailer

Adam Graham Interview




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

Mid-afternoon or early evening is usually the best.

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

I’m a child of the Internet generation and not even I can read my handwriting. So, I’ve found it’s best to start on the computer.


3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Everything. Tales of the Dim Knight parodies a lot of superhero stories and conventions which I’ve drawn from my childhood vegging in front of the TV, which I guess I can now categorize as research. However, other elements of Tales of the Dim Knight make fun of some self-help books and some “keeping up with the Joneses” behavior I’ve seen.

For my Rise of the Judge series of short stories, I used my experience working in a call center to create the structure for a futuristic army intelligence operation that monitors the e-mails of citizens in the hope of catching potential “terrorists.” I actually wrote two science fiction short stories two straight weeks in a row based on a small part of a sermon I heard on Sunday morning. A writer really has to keep the eyes and ears of their imagination open.



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

Not usually.

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

Thankfully, I’m published and cover art was actually something where we were approached by Holly Heisey who volunteered to do our cover and just did a great job on it. So for this release it was pretty easy to get the cover art.

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

I’ve always loved to tell stories and to create, and I continually more story ideas all the time. So, I’m eager to get these stories out.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

I don’t own a standalone E-reader yet. However, I do have the Kindle for Ipod App and I’ve read several books on my Ipod that way. I also got an App in the Apple Store that allows easy access to hundreds of thousands of free public domain books with the Ipod.

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

A lot of the classics. I love G..K. Chesterton. He has a fantastic voice as a writer, even if his style is a bit old fashioned. His way with words was just amazing. Also, I’ve really become a big fan of Rex Stout and what he was able to create with the Nero Wolfe stories in blending the world of hard boiled and soft boiled fiction to produce amazing mysteries driven by characters we really could care about. Right now, I’m unattached in terms of a current book. I went through a period of about a week and a half after Christmas when I read The League of Frightened Men (2nd Nero Wolfe novel), Mysterious Affair at Styles (first Poirot Novel), Study in Scarlet, and then Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.  Then I got a stomach flu and didn’t feel much like reading. Don’t know what I’ll pick up next.

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

We do have a book trailer (embed if you can.) I’m very proud of what we came up with for our superhero parody. That said, I’m still a bit of a book trailer skeptic. All the current advice on book promotion says to have one, but I have yet to hear of people buying a book or even beginning the process of buying a book as a result of seeing the book trailer. I tend to be of the mind that good excerpts and good reviews are probably more important, but if not I’m glad we’ve got an interesting book trailer.


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

As it was a parody book about a dim-witted superhero, the title of the book itself is a parody of the title, “Tales of the Dark Knight.”


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

Everything is in really early stages. I’m thinking of doing a parody/homage of Detective Stories, working title is “Case Files of the Selfish Detective.” Also, I may take up a more serious superhero story in completing the origin tale for my eighteen-inch high superhero, Small Packages.



Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Mike Nettleton Interview





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

After spending most of a lifetime performing morning radio shows, my body clock is stuck in the early-to-bed, extremely-early-to-rise mode. For the same reason, I’m geared to getting my mind revving pretty quickly after I wake up. I try to put my rear end in front of the computer soon after my morning cuppa and reading the funnies and the editorials in the morning paper.

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

I am almost exclusively a keyboard person. This goes back to elementary school when a series of handwriting teachers threw their hands up in the air and screamed agggghhh!!!. To this day, the only person who can read my handwriting is me, and that’s not a sure thing. I got a Smith-Corona portable manual typewriter for a high-school graduation present and have never looked back.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Almost everything. Articles in the paper, observation of human nature, dreams, memories, left over hallucinations from the sixties. I ’ve always had this tendency to ask the “what if questions.” For example, “Sometimes A Great Commotion” came about partially because of my prior knowledge of a New Mexico family who saw, what they thought was an image of Jesus on the surface of a freshly fried tortilla. I found myself asking what would happen if Elspeth Hunsaker, the local bible-thumper thought she saw some kind of divine image on the surface of a crab cake (we are talking an Oregon coastal community) What if she went online to tout “the miracle of the crustacean” and thousands of pilgrims found their way to Devil’s Harbor. What might happen then and how could it lead to a murder.

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

I feel like I’m setting myself up for failure that way. Instead, I’m trying to make sure I keep the tushki in the seat for a certain amount of time each day. Two hours minimum, more if I’m going good. Right now I’m revising a novel I wrote 5 years back so I don’t necessarily need to generate anything totally new. So there’s no excuse not to work for the two hours.

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

Carolyn and I are published by Krill Press, a small print-on-demand publisher in Southern Oregon. Her individual book “Hemlock Lake” is with Five Star, which is a small mainstream press. Our publishers have created our cover art. Ken, at Krill has done a good job of capturing the heart of our stories. We created our own cover art when we were with even smaller presses for our first books. I did a lot of the work using Photo-shop for “The Hard Karma Shuffle,” The Crushed Velvet Miasma” and several of Carolyn’s Casey Brandt books.

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

Actually, my career has been in the broadcasting business. I’ve written ad copy, audio-video presentations, on air skits and other material as an offshoot.  Writing is just something I’ve always done and finally got serious enough about it to start attempting novels about twenty years ago. If I had to live on what I’ve made writing, you’d find me down along the freeway with a sign “Will Write For Food.”

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

Not yet, but I think there’s a Kindle or Nook in our future. We still love the feeling of paper pages on our fingertips, but recognize there’s a whole new generation of readers who will do all of their reading on a backlit screen.

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

In the mystery/thriller genre, we’ve been fanatical about reading Lee Child’s work. I think the attraction to his character Jack Reacher is the same as college-years attraction to Ian Fleming’s James Bond. You knew he was going to face totally overwhelming odds, outnumbered at least ten-to-one and still come out on top. Michael Connolly, Ian Rankin and yes Stieg Larsson. We’ve seen all three movies made about his “Girl Who” and thanks to subtitles, now speak passable Swedish. Authors I return to time and time again Ray Bradbury, Pat Conroy and John Steinbeck.

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

We have book trailers for both Devil’s Harbor books and Carolyn’s mainstream mystery Hemlock Lake. Here are the links. “The Big Grabowski,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M36HSyesec8
“Sometimes A Great Commotion,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUW8cVR7dIk

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

Ken, our publisher at Krill likes titles that sparkle and are evocative of things readers already have an association with. We had less sparkly, evocative titles for both the Devil’s Harbor Books. He came up with “The Big Grabowski” and it fit perfectly. The greedy land-developer and scam artist Vince Grabowski was a fast-talking gold-chain wearing, lecherous and swaggering bully who ends up dead in a tidal pool at the local Sea Lion sanctuary. The association with Coen Brother’s movie “The Big Lebowski” gave it that tone of familiarity. We decided that since “Sometimes A Great Commotion” dealt with logging, a small Oregon Coastal Town and a cast of eccentric characters caught up in a swirl of craziness, it would only be fitting to pay tribute to Ken Kesey’s masterpiece “Sometimes A Great Notion.”




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

I’m rethinking a novel that I wrote 5 or so years back and had represented by an agent called “Shotgun Start.” It deals with a disgraced Albuquerque cop who, after being tossed off the force resorts to the only think he knows, hustling golf on local course to make a living. When his ex-wife’s current lover ends up shotgunned to death and the police have video of the murder as proof, he’s hired by his exe’s father to find her before the police do and get her to turn herself in. Although I liked the original version of the story, I’m finding that looking at it with fresh eyes is giving me the opportunity to tighten it, strengthen the characters and make the pace hotter. Next on my plate is a screenplay of our earlier Young Adult Fantasy novel “The Hermit of Humbug Mountain.”


Monday, January 10, 2011

Phillip Thomas Duck ONE QUICK KISS




Hitting the ebook venue hard, with ONE QUICK KISS

Author Phillip Thomas Duck follows up his first ebook, "Excuse Me, Miss", with an even sexier collection of short stories, ONE QUICK KISS, for only 99 cents. Amazon's new DTP technology has allowed Mr. Duck to continue to reach a wider audience.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Jan 10, 2011 – A collection of short stories about sex, love, and every emotion in between. From the light and whimsical, to the highly charged and erotic, this collection offers something for everyone who has ever been under the intoxicating spell of a relationship and desirous of…ONE QUICK KISS

On the eve of her wedding anniversary the wife in COTTON COMES TO NINA has but one wish for a present. She wishes the calendar would simply skip the date. But how does she explain this to her eager husband?

Boxing is known as the Sweet Science. A brutal sport that requires the extreme sacrifice and commitment of its combatants. Rule number one: no sex before a big fight. For the two lovers at the heart of G.O.A.T., getting beyond rule number one might be as difficult as the coming fight itself.

The wife is the last to know. Discovering that her husband has been unfaithful is surely a terrible shock for the devoted wife and mother of IN THE DARK. But an even greater shock than that is still to come.

I am my brother’s keeper. So many things come to mind with thoughts of brotherhood. Camaraderie, fellowship, looking out for the wellbeing of another. The brother in FLIMSY AND RAGGEDY wonders if lusting after his brother’s girlfriend can be added to the list.

This collection also includes an excerpt from the romantic suspense novella, EXCUSE ME MISS and its forthcoming follow-up, MODESTY.

Praise for EXCUSE ME MISS:

The unusual premise, great characters, and intriguing plot made this a fun, highly enjoyable read. I really can't wait to find out what happens next.
---The Romance Reviews---

This is a sexy suspense short fiction novella that has an interesting premise. Mr. Duck has created a strong, but vulnerable, woman who needs to face her past and get on with her future.
---Eclectic Reviews---

http://www.ExcuseMeMissPTD.blogspot.com



Sunday, January 9, 2011

Charles Hall Interview





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

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?  All on the computer now, though I wrote my first novel in cursive many years ago.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?  Native cultures, geographical features, personal experience.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count? No.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?  Self-published. Outskirts Press provided the cover artist, I came up with the design based on a plot event and five prominent characters.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer? I have wanted to write since I read my first Hardy Boy Mystery.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device? No.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?  Tolkien, Shakespeare, C.S. Forrester, Ellis Peters. I am currently reading “The Horse, the Wheel and Language,” by David W. Anthony, a research study of the homeland of the Indo-European language family.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?  I have my doubts concerning their effectiveness.  If you mean “video trailer” I have used one with OP.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?  My son invented the name “Endylmyr:” I agonized over using the word “Chronicle,” but decided it beat “legends, tales, or myths.”

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about? The second volume in the series, “A Chronicle of Endylmyr.”  No subtitle yet.


Leave A comment for your chance to win a signed copy of his book.


Karly Kirkpatrick Interview




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

I would say right after breakfast (between like 9:30 AM – Noon).  That’s if I’m not at the day job.  Then I would have to say weekends or lunch hours, as that’s the only time I have. I am a high school teacher, so I do benefit from a few good writing breaks (Winter, Spring, Summer).  But I’m always wishing I had more time!

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

I start all of my projects in a black Moleskin notebook.  I list ideas, names, plots, descriptions, look
up any research I might need before I get started with the writing.  It helps keep me focused.  I actually wrote my first novel in one of those notebooks before putting it in the computer.  That’s probably why it took so long to write!

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Life, imagination.  I work with teenagers all day and write YA fiction, so I try to think about how they would handle unusual situations.

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

I do.  I’ll try to shoot for a round number, usually 1,000 or 2,000 words in a sitting.  I’ve found I can do 1,000 words in about 45 minutes if it’s really flowing.

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 used a cover artist named Carl Graves to design my cover.  He did a fantastic job and has done all the covers for epub author Joe Konrath.  That’s where I got his name.

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

I’ve always loved books and stories and one day I thought to myself that I should put my own stories down on paper. I would love to do it as a full time job.  Before I epubbed, it didn’t seem like that would really be an option, but depending on how things go in the next year or two, that might be a possibility someday.  The idea of entertaining people for a living is so cool.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

I do.  We are now, in fact, a 2 Kindle household.  I love it!  It’s actually sitting next to me right now!

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

Right this second I’m reading City of Glass by Cassandra Clare and an awesome manuscript that a good friend of mine is going to release soon.  It’s awesome!
Some of my fave authors are JK Rowling, Suzanne Collins, AS King, Agatha Christie, and Roald Dahl.

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

Hmm.  Book trailers.  I have seen a few in my time, but they didn’t really do anything for me.  I’d rather just look at the cover and the description.  Call me lazy, but I haven’t done any for my book and probably won’t.  

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

I actually got it from a song title.  I was listening to this Finnish band called the Rasmus a lot when I was writing Into the Shadows, and their song, In the Shadows was my inspiration for the title.

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

Oh, lots of things!  I’m currently wrapping up work on a YA vampire novel (less sparkle, more blood, but still something for the ladies) titled Bloody Little Secrets, which I hope to have out by May.  I will have sneak peaks on my blog soon.  I’ve got another finished YA contemporary that needs a little polish, but should also make an appearance in 2011.  I’m also planning to write and release the sequel to Into the Shadows in 2011.
As well as the books, I am also very active on my blog.  I’ve been interviewing epub all-stars, giving them a chance to teach us a few things, I have a series of articles called Adventures in Epublishing where I share my path with anyone interested, and I’ve started something called Bookaday, where authors can list there books for free to my readers.



Thanks again for the interview!

http://karlykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/