Please give a warm welcome to Anja Pruitt, author of When Love Calls.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re currently working on or promoting.
I’m Anja Pruitt, married mother of two and I live in North Carolina. In addition to writing books I also write poetry and music. The novel I just completed, When Love Calls, is my first romance novel. I’m currently working on the sequel, When Love Waits. Continue reading
Mind Games is about Diana Racine’s relationship with her gift as a psychic, with her parents, the media and her fans. I loved all the complex relationships and Polly Iyer’s excellent ability in writing voices and behaviors that made each character very distinctive. That’s definitely a fine art. The two most important relationships that Diana has to contend with are the budding romance between her and Detective Lucier and the dangerous man with an equally powerful psychic ability who is hell bent on proving, in the most destructive ways, that he is superior. I read this 390 page novel quickly and felt very satisfied with the end. I was rooting for Diana the whole way. Continue reading
I’m so happy to share the cover of my husband’s novel Geared to the Present. I just love it. What do you think? Available on Amazon!
Geared to the Present is the story of Jones Whitman who, after making unsavory lifestyle choices in Boston society, learns his father, James, has arranged for him to school under the tutelage of Master Wong Fei-hung in Foshan, China. Jones Whitman submits to the teaching, evolving into a strong and ethical young man. Fei-hung, master of Hung Gar gives each student a new name upon graduation. Jones’s new name is 時光旅行者, Time Traveler. Jones spends the next seven years working diligently on a design for a time machine. The Atomotron. When the first human trial is to take place, he inadvertently trips the lever and jumps forward 120 years to Snohomish, Washington, 2012. That’s where the real adventure begins.
Dana Bennett lived in north central Florida for the first chapter of his life. After high school, he spent the next chapter working with problem teens and their families in Pensacola, Florida and then spent time on the Colorado River Indian Reservation, in Parker, Arizona helping the Native American population. He graduated from Nova Southeastern with a degree in psychology later in life. He has had many eclectic professional experiences in the work arena, always returning to the creativity he finds in building and construction as well as crafting new stories.
He has three wonderful daughters and two adorable grandsons. He is married to his best friend and partner in life, love, and business. They have a strong supportive community of friends and neighbors who encourage them daily to keep writing.
He enjoys each day with Blakely as they work on their never finished project, life. Writing is his bliss and both he and Blakely are chasing the dream of writing full time.
You can find out more by going to:
http://danabennettblog.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GearedToThePresent
Please give a warm welcome to my best friend and husband, Dana Bennett, author of Geared to the Present, Jones Whitman Time Travel Series and The Demarcation of Jack. Make sure to check back tomorrow to see the cover reveal for Geared to the Present!
What genre is your book? Do you write in other genres as well?
Geared to the Present, Jones Whitman, Time Traveler is a new adult, historical fiction, time travel romance. My wife and I recently published The Demarcation of Jack which is contemporary romance with a twist.
Do you use test readers? If so, how many?
I do use test readers or beta readers, as we call them, and they are invaluable to producing your best product. Usually around five. Make sure your list of questions for your readers will lend to perfecting your product.
What advice do you have for writer’s just starting out?
Write about what you love and it will show through in your work, but most importantly, write. Create a great product and it will sell itself; a good story with interesting characters combined with appropriate beta readers and a pro editor, and of course, a beautiful cover that tells the story of your book in one picture. A picture is worth a thousand, or in our case, 70 to 90 thousand words, or more. AND wear virtual earplugs for a while, ‘cause everybody’s an expert.
Do you outline your stories or just go with the flow?
It’s sort of an outline. I have an excel worksheet that lists scenes with characters, location and purpose of the scene. When I write I refer to the worksheet, but the characters don’t always read the worksheet and I can find myself being pulled in a whole new direction.
What does your writing space look like?
It’s an unorganized mess on my desk, but I have reminders of grammar issues hanging to my left and bio’s of all of my characters with photos hanging to my right. That helps me with their voices.
Do you have any writing rituals or interesting writing quirks?
Yes. I write best between eight and noon. I can go longer but the quality begins to diminish. I enjoy research. However, I can also find myself with ten websites open and may have forgotten the original question. 😉
Is there a message in your book(s) that you want readers to grasp?
I really enjoy strong female characters and men who aren’t afraid to show emotions, so the characters are constantly surprising me with some of their dialogue. I hope to free both men and women from their contrived, role expectations.
Was one of your characters more challenging to write than another?
I suppose that might be Roark. He is a six foot eight inch man of Irish descent who has been hired by Jones as a bodyguard. So he needed to be tough but lovable as well. My wife, who is my first reader, says that Jones and Roark have a bromance going on that she really likes.
What do you do to stay sane as a writer?
Write. Work on something else. I also work with my hands as a carpenter, which gives a different kind of creative outlet.
What do you do when you’re not writing?
Spending precious time with my best friend, Blakely Bennett. I do have projects outside of the home, but whenever I can I am at her side, talking about the future, better ways to play, what our characters are up to and new ideas for stories.
Do you read your reviews and if so, how do you cope with a bad one?
I do read reviews. I respect that POV is just that. When I’ve worked really hard, as well as my editor and beta readers, and I really love my product, I stand behind it. I don’t expect everyone to love my kids the way that I do and I certainly don’t give credence when a person is just flat out mean. I dismiss them and move on.
You can find Dana on Facebook, Facebook Page, Twitter and soon on his blog.
To buy Dana’s book, please click on the cover below or the links in the interview. Geared to the Present will be available on Amazon in paperback and eBook February 27th.
I recently watched two documentaries that I think are worth discussing. The first was called The Unhung Hero, about a man who after publicly proposing to his girlfriend at a large sporting event suffered a brutal turndown and found out later the main reason for her declining had to do with the size of his penis (too small). The second story called Aroused was a video/photo shoot by the fine art photographer Deborah Anderson who featured sixteen of the world’s most successful female adult film stars. Continue reading
Please give a warm welcome to Samantha Chase, author of The Snowflake Inn.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re currently working on or promoting.
Hey! I’m Samantha Chase and I am an indie author of contemporary romances. I just released my twelfth book, The Snowflake Inn. It just came out on November 18th.
What genre is your book? Do you write in other genres as well?
The Snowflake Inn is a contemporary holiday romance and that’s the genre that I stick with. I love to read all things contemporary romance and it’s the genre that I enjoy writing in the most.
Do you have an agent and/or publisher or are you self-published? If self-published, do you use a professional editor? If traditionally published, who is your publisher?After trying to for many, many years to go the traditional route, it never happened for me so I turned to self-publishing. I do use an editing service and even doing that, nothing is fool-proof. I still get readers who point out the mistakes.
What advice do you have for writer’s just starting out?
Write in the genre that you enjoy and are comfortable with. Don’t try and go with the latest trends or what you think is hot. If you’re not passionate about what you’re writing, it comes through in your work. Right now, contemporary romance isn’t the trend, but I am not comfortable writing erotica or paranormal romances. Clearly there’s still an audience for contemporary and I’m happy that I have readers!
Do you outline your stories or just go with the flow?
A little of both. I start out with a very basic outline in my head (sometimes I actually write it down!) but more often than not, I stray from that and go with the flow.
What does your writing space look like?
I have a very tiny writing space. I have a desk in the corner of my dining room and that’s where I work. If the family is home when I’m writing, I have to plug in my headphones and pop in my sounds of the ocean CD and go from there.
Is being an author your dream job? If so, how long have you been chasing the dream? If not, what would be your dream job?
Absolutely! I have dreamed of being an author since I was in the third grade and wrote my first short story. I didn’t get serious about sitting down and actually putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) until I was in my thirties and after my first rejection letter I stopped writing again for years! Years later I was teaching creative writing to homeschoolers and found that I was encouraging them to chase after their writing dream but I wasn’t doing the same for myself. They encouraged me to try again and even though I still got rejections and ended up going the indie route, it was the best decision I ever made.
What book are you currently reading?
The Perfect Match by Kristan Higgins
What has been your best moment as a writer?
Last year when I released The Christmas Cottage, I didn’t have any real expectations. I was just happy to have a book released. It was out for a week and I woke up on my birthday and found that it was #86 on one of Amazon’s bestseller lists. I cried! I never thought that I’d have a book on ANY bestseller list and it was the greatest feeling ever.
What challenges have you faced in your writing career?
I know it sounds crazy but I have a hard time dealing with other people’s perceptions of my work. Not like whether they think it’s good or not but there is still a bit of a stigma when you say ‘I write romance novels’. People kind of smirk and think that you’re writing porn. It makes me cringe every time I see that look.
Do you see yourself in any of your characters?
All too often! Lol! I put a bit of my personality in all of my heroine’s just because it seems natural. I love to cook and so you’ll see that a lot in my characters and I tend to be a bit snarky at times and that trait comes through in my writing more times than I can count. My mom says that she hears my voice when she reads my books.
Do you base your characters on people you know?
No. It’s funny because when people I know read my books that is the first thing that they ask or they try to figure out who I am describing. I try to stay away from doing it because I wouldn’t want to offend anyone.
How much time a day do you spend on social media?
Way too much. It’s my primary way of advertising because it’s free. Plus, I can play games while I’m on there!
Do you read your reviews and if so, how do you cope with a bad one?
I had to stop reading them because people are really, really mean. I’ve read bad books and I’ve left reviews stating that but without personally attacking the author. I am shocked by the amount of hateful reviewers out there who make it a personal thing. I had received two scathing reviews for The Christmas Cottage and it devastated me. It didn’t matter that I had eighty great ones, those two really hurt. I don’t expect everyone to love my work but I just wish that people didn’t feel the need to go for the jugular.
I, Blakely, have found the writer’s community to be very supportive and welcoming. Samantha, please share three writers that you recommend.
You can find Samantha on Facebook and Twitter.
To buy Samantha’s book(s), click on the links or the cover or go to Amazon:
I am so thrilled to share the newest cover for Stuck In Between. Make sure to scroll down for a new excerpt from the story.
.jpg)
Jacqs is a twenty-eight year old woman caught up in an on again, off again relationship with Bond, who is her best friend and the one who causes her the most heartache. She succumbs, yet again, to his powerful charisma, but vows not make it into more than it is, a great night of sex.
Bond, too sexy for his own good, wants Jacqs for himself as he “dates” his way through the female population of South Florida. He selfishly doesn’t see the conflict of interest.
Red, Bond’s best friend, has watched Bond take Jacqs for granted for way too long and soon stakes his own claim on her.
Will Red and Jacqs budding relationship pull apart their tight-knit group of friends and will Jacqs survive being Stuck In Between.
Blakely is married to a wonderful, loving and supportive husband, also a writer, who helps to keep her grounded. She is a mother, a communitarian, a lover of music (always on while she is writing—thank you, Pandora), and a good friend. An advocate of love and female empowerment, she is a facilitator for a women’s group. She loves to walk and hike for exercise and finds that, since moving to Seattle, WA, she is now one of those “crazy” people who walk in the rain.
Please give a warm welcome to Sarah Daltry & Pete Clark, authors of Backward Compatible.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re currently working on or promoting.
Sarah: Like my author bio says, I write about people I feel are real. I don’t necessarily escape through reading. Instead, I see books as a way to feel more active in the human experience. Right now, I’m promoting a gamer geek romance that I co-wrote with Pete – because we’re both gamer geeks and I guess it was important to us.
Pete: I like cheese. We’re promoting Backward Compatible, a geek romance.
Do you have any writing rituals or interesting writing quirks?
Sarah: Not really. I have horrible ADHD and I am always in the middle of like twenty things.
Pete: When I finish something, I listen to terrible 80’s music in celebration. Continue reading
An online friend and I recently had a somewhat heated debate about paying for reviews. He told me about a website, where he had signed up, that has a requirement to provide gift cards in exchange for potential reviews. I said something like, “I’m unwilling to pay money to get reviews.” For him, since it wasn’t a direct exchange, money for a review, it was completely fine.
We all get to decide, thankfully, where our personal line of ethics lies.
I have been asked by other authors to “post a review” in exchange for a review of my book. I wouldn’t even have to read the novel and they would tell me what to write. Of course I declined. Is it wrong that I want to sink or swim on my own merit?
There are people on FB that offer reviews for a fee. I’m completely against this. My debate partner tried to equate giving my book away for free with paying for a review. I completely and vehemently disagreed. Yes, we can place a value on an eBook (although it costs me nothing to provide one) or even a paperback but I don’t feel like I’m BUYING a review by providing a reviewer with a free copy.
You can find plenty of websites where you can pay a rather steep fee to get to be reviewed on their site. To me a book is either good or not and there are so many different free sites to get your book noticed that I don’t want to pay my hard earned money to support an industry that exploits its writers.
I became rather irritated during the debate and I realized why it happened after the fact. I’m perfectly okay with having a difference of opinion with people and many people who read this post will probably think there is nothing wrong with paying money to get your book promoted any way they can. It’s a business, right? However, when someone argues with me as if their position is the only one that makes sense; I want to slap the imagined smirk off their face. Not truly, since I’m the non-violent creative type, but I think I’ve illustrated my point.
Where do you fall along the divide? Please share your thoughts with us.
Warm hugs to all my readers and a special hug to my debate partner,
Blakely
Please feel free to friend me on Facebook.
Find me Twitter & Pinterest.