I’d like to give a warm welcome to talented writer, Michael A. Kechula

Michael A. Kechula is a retired tech writer. His fiction has won first place in eight contests and placed in six others. He’s also won Editor’s Choice awards four times. His stories have been published by 108 magazines and 30 anthologies in Australia, Canada, England, India, Scotland, and US. He’s authored a book of flash and micro-fiction stories: A Full Deck of Zombies–61 Speculative Fiction Tales. eBook available at www.BooksForABuck.com and www.fictionwise.com Paperback available at www.amazon.com.

I’d like to discuss the origins, the process and the early days of your writing.

Where do you think your writing comes from?

Maybe it was passed through the genes from my mother’s side. Many of my aunts, uncles, and cousins are good writers. Several have made their living as technical writers.

When and why did you begin writing?

When I was seven and in the third grade in parochial school. That was the Fall of 1946. Our teacher, a nun, asked me to write a new play every week. The idea was that my play would be presented to the class in what she called the Storyteller’s Club. So, I did it. Plus, I selected the kids who would act out the stories. I wrote each character’s script. These little plays ran for about five to seven minutes.

How do you come up with your ideas and settings?

Ideas come to me all the time. Consequently, I keep three tape recorders at strategic places around the house and one in the car. That way, I can capture new story ideas as they occur. I often wake up in the middle of the night with story ideas. In fact, I got three of them last night. I grabbed the recorder I keep on my night stand and began to dictate.

By the way, my use of voice recorders goes back three decades. I found them extremely useful when I was a technical writer and course developer for the IBM Corporation in Silicon Valley. When I switched to writing fiction, which didn’t happen until well after I retired, I continued using recorders.

Here’s an example of a time when I woke up with an idea and used my tape recorder to develop it. I woke with the words ghost bugs in my mind. Talk about unusual intrusions by the unconscious mind! Freud would’ve had a field day with that one. Anyway, I grabbed the tape recorder on my night stand and asked myself out loud, What on earth is a ghost bug? Well, I started dictating, and it turned out to be one of the funniest times I ever had when developing a new tale. When I listened to the hour’s worth of dictation, it was loaded with my laughter. Nevertheless, between the guffaws, I had the essence of a really bizarre piece of humorous speculative fiction. I completed the story the same day, called it Ghost Bugs, and submitted it to Alien Skin Magazine. This highly regarded online publication used to give writers very quick turnaround. They bought my story within 24 hours. To this day, it remains one of my favorite tales.
It’s been reprinted several times.

What is your process? Do you have any rituals? Do you adhere to a writing schedule?

I don’t have any rituals, nor do I adhere to a writing schedule. However, I write daily and always in the morning when my mind’s fresh.

What motivates Michael A. Kechula?

The need to create. Seems I was born with the ability to write. I’m retired and have lots of time to devote to writing and submitting. In fact, since January through May 25 of this year, I’ve submitted 104 stories to magazines, anthologies, and contests. So far during May alone, I’ve been lucky enough to get 43 stories accepted by magazines. One of them even won first prize in a writing contest. This acceptance rate for a single month surpasses my previous record which I set in December 2007 when 35 of my stories were accepted. I’ve been told by Pam Casto, a flash fiction guru, that I may have set some kind of record.

Since I’m talking about acceptance rates, in the past four years, over 400 of my stories have been accepted by 108 magazines and 30 anthologies in six countries. In addition, I’ve won 1st and 2nd prizes in 14 writing contests, including those sponsored by magazines in foreign countries. Finally, my work was selected as Editor’s Choice four times. These successes tend to reinforce my creativity and drive me to write even more. I’m almost 70 years old and I’m having the time of my life. I didn’t begin to write fiction until I was in my 60’s. Now I wonder what my life would’ve been like if I’d started writing fiction during my 20’s.

Tell us about the early days in your writing career. What was the first piece you wrote? What inspired you?

As I mentioned earlier, I wrote short plays to be performed for my third grade classmates. After that, every school year until I left that Catholic elementary school, the nuns gave me creative writing assignments. For example, they asked me to develop radio shows for weekly presentation to the class. I created fifteen minute quiz shows, which imitated real radio quiz shows of the time. Remember, this was back in the late 1940’s. I also wrote commercials for my shows. That showed I had a flair for satire. I recall the first commercial I wrote, which included a theme song. This was for an imaginary product called Swiggums Milk. Three girls in the class sang the lyrics I’d written. I’m reminded that one of the girls who sang my commercials recently told me the lyrics have stuck with her to this day. She said she sang them to her grandchildren. That goes to show how things we write can impact people in ways we can’t possibly anticipate.

What do you read for pleasure? What’s the book sitting on top of your to read pile?

I don’t do very much reading for pleasure anymore. That’s because I use the time to read and critique lots of flash fiction tales every week on a number of sites. Also, I’d rather spend my time writing flash fiction, instead of reading novels.

What has influenced you the most in your writing career?

First were the nuns just mentioned. But the strongest influence came from a professor who showed up late in my life. I’m referring to Dr. Sherry Rosenthal, PhD, who teaches creative writing in Las Vegas. I signed up for her fiction writing class. Prior to that, I had a fiction writing block that lasted about 10 years. The block began when I retired from IBM, and decided to switch from nonfiction to fiction. Thought it’d be a piece of cake, because during my nonfiction writing career, I produced 28 books. But I couldn’t get off the ground with fiction. In fact, I couldn’t get a sentence on paper that was worth anything. Frustrated, I walked into Dr. Rosenthal’s class the first day of the semester and said the only way I’d stay is if she could break my fiction writing block. She said she would, and indeed she did.

As her student, I discovered I could write fiction. One of her assignments, which was to write a romance story, resulted in my authoring a 10,000 word tale. She said it was good enough to submit to the New York romance market. I did. Imagine my surprise when True Love Magazine bought it for $300. So, Dr. Rosenthal succeeded in breaking my block, and I haven’t stopped writing fiction since. Few educators have impacted my life like she did. How lucky I was to run into this master teacher.

What’s on your desk right now?

My “What If” file that contains over 150 story ideas. What If refers to the fundamental question many authors ask themselves when developing speculative fiction tales. By speculative fiction, I mean sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, plus their numerous subgenres.

What’s in your future? What are you planning to do next?

I’ve just sent a manuscript containing 50 of my speculative fiction tales to eBook publisher, Books For A Buck. All stories in this collection were previously published by magazines and anthologies in several countries, including Canada, England, India, Scotland, and US. A few won writing contests. The publisher is reviewing them now. I may even beef up the number before publication time. This book, which is not titled at the moment, should be released this year. It will be available as an eBook and paperback.

Meanwhile, I continue to develop flash fiction tales for publication. Maybe I’ll end up with a couple more paperback and eBook collections in the next few years.

I’ve also assembled a collection of flash fiction romance tales. Some are huggy-kissy tales, but others are peppered with elements of fantasy and horror. I may seek a publisher for these. Most were previously published by magazines in the US, Canada, and England.

Now I’d like to discuss A Full deck of Zombies – 61 Speculative Fiction Tales.

Currently, one my collections is available as and eBook and paperback. It’s called, “A Full Deck of Zombies – 61 Speculative Fiction Tales.” A low cost eBook version is available through www.booksforabuck.com and www.fictionwise.com. The paperback is available through www.amazon.com.

I think the best way to understand the range of stories in this collection is if I show the description I wrote for this book:

Not all zombies are fearsome and disgusting. Some sing, dance, play musical instruments, and even tell jokes. These loveable creatures like root beer, granola bars, and chocolate chip cookies. You’ll find these fun loving, cookie-munching zombies lurking between the pages of this book. But you’ll also read about some you’d never want to meet even if you were carrying a bazooka.

Not limited to zombie tales, this book includes a host of zany characters from outer space: ghost bugs; Martians who wear ten-gallon hats; Martians who stop commuter busses to take surveys; Martians who joyously amputate their own fingers to accumulate points for free Disneyland trips; and many more.

Then too are stories of ordinary Earth folks, like the guy next door who hugs corpses for a living, the gal down the block who falls in love with a zombie, your co-worker who snacks on alien finger sandwiches, your best pal who takes college courses with zombies, and dozens of other weirdos.

By now, you’ve guessed that most of the sixty-one stories in this book are humorous speculative fiction tales, a species not easily found. However, to keep you from busting a gut from laughter and incurring high medical costs, we’ve toned down the hilarity by including a few tales to make you cringe and hide in the closet. After reading them you may even want to seek the assistance of an exorcist.

All sixty-one stories were previously published in magazines and anthologies in Australia, Canada, England, and the US. Editors called them a hoot. Readers said they were hilarious. But the dark ones aren’t funny–unless the macabre makes you break out into uncontrollable laughter.

Now that you have an idea of what to expect, buckle up your seat belt, open the book, and enjoy the ride.

What is the premise of collection of tales? Tell us a bit about the it.

All tales in the collection are of the speculative fiction genre. None are related to each other in any way.

Did you know from the beginning how you would end the story? Are you a methodical plotter or do you let the story lead you?

Since I write mostly flash fiction tales of 1,000 words or less, my stories are necessarily plot driven. As to plot development, it occurs as I write the story. Something I want to mention here. I usually write multiple versions of the same story. This involves plot changes, adding and subtracting characters, and increasing or decreasing word lengths. I do this whenever I come up with a concept that fascinates me. This is not an idle exercise. It allows me to use the same core idea to develop several stories to meet guidelines for different magazines.

As to knowing from the beginning how I’ll end a story, that rarely happens. Once I create a grabber of an opener, the story writes itself.

Is there a message in the collection you’d like your readers to grasp?

Not usually. I consider myself a storyteller first, and writer second. As a storyteller, I seek to entertain my readers not convert them into different ways of thinking. However, a few of my stories are thinly veiled political satire. For example, my flash fiction story, “First Day of School” pokes fun at some of our nation’s social engineering. This work is definitely not politically correct by any measure. In this story, the Board of Education of Santa Buffoona, a town I’ve invented for satirical spec fiction works, hires a blue gorilla as their newest kindergarten teacher. By the way, I’ve written over 30 versions of this tale. Several variations have been published.

Another of my satirical works pokes fun at lawmakers. In this one, a guy is arrested because when moving to Santa Buffoona, he was unaware of city ordinance requiring citizens to buy one pizza per week from a pizzeria owned by political interests. He’s in arrears for several hundred dollars for not buying and eating 30 pizzas. He refuses to pay up. He’s dragged off to a kangaroo court where he’s sentenced to a stretch at Santa Buffoona’s Pizza Re-Education Camp. And indeed he does get re-educated in ways that seem to tickle readers’ funny bones, according to feedback I’ve received. By the way, I have two different versions of this tale, and both have been published and reprinted. One version is called, “Thank You, Dr. Pavlov.” Another version is called “My Pizza, My Love.” Meanwhile, I’ve used the latter title for an entirely different story about an orphan who wants to turn into a pizza. When asked why, he says, “Because nobody loves me, but everybody loves pizza.” This satire examines the lack of affection in these harsh times. This story comes in several versions, and all have been published and reprinted several times. In one case, an editor saw a version in a magazine, and asked my permission to publish it in hers.

Where can we learn more about you?

I don’t have a web site. However, if anybody Googles my name, they’ll see 25 pages loaded with entries. Most of them list stories I’ve written for dozens of magazines and anthologies. Clicking on those entries will allow you to read many of my flash and micro-fiction tales. I’ve often wondered who posts these things under my name. Perhaps the magazines and anthologies do this.

Thank you, Michael, for an interesting interview.

Thanks for reading!

All the best,
Joyce Adair

Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz has published more than 75 articles, 50 stories, two e-books, a chapbook, and her stories have been included in two anthologies. She writes for both adults and children. Her fiction has appeared in numerous genre and children’s publications and non-fiction work has appeared in a variety of writing, parenting, and young adult print magazines and online publications. Her writing blog is available at http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com

I’d like to discuss the origins, the process and the early days of your writing.

Where do you think your writing comes from?

I remember my father making up stories for me when I was a child. I loved the idea of make-believe and fantasy. When I was old enough to write, I knew it was what I wanted to do. Writing is a part of me and is part of who I am.

When and why did you begin writing?

My first stories were written in grade school, by hand, and carefully hand-illustrated and bound with ribbon. When I got to high school, I convinced my Senior English teacher to let me work on a novel instead of doing homework assignments. I never got that novel published, but I loved doing it. After graduation, I tried to publish stories, but was rejected. Not knowing then, what I know now, I decided I was just not a good writer and gave it up. In 1993, I was paid to write a grant. I thought to myself if I can get paid for grant writing, why not for other types of writing. I took a correspondence course with The Children’s Institute of Literature and shortly after had my first acceptance.

How do you come up with your ideas and settings?

Sometimes I get ideas from the newspaper or a magazine article. A couple of my stories came from writing conference projects. Most of my non-fiction is related to my own personal experience as a writer, a parent, and a volunteer. Settings for my stories vary – again sometimes gleaned from a newspaper or magazine article. My middle-grade paranormal novel is actually set here in the area where I currently live.

What is your process? Do you have any rituals? Do you adhere to a writing schedule?

I don’t have any rituals or any set schedule. I write when the mood strikes me. I’m afraid I’m not very disciplined that way. There are times when life just gets in the way, and I decided a long time ago not to let that bother me. When I get an idea for a story, I can sit for a really long time and just pound away at the keyboard. I like it quiet when I work. I know some people like music, but I find it distracting. Occasionally I will look out the window at my garden, so I get a break, or take my puppies out for a romp.

What motivates Penny Ehrenkranz?

Ha, seeing my name in print! I love that byline  It’s always nice to get a paycheck and there are only a few places I will submit to which are non-paying. A non-paying magazine has to be high quality and have a dedicated volunteer staff before I will “give” away my stories. I guess I just love the idea of someone reading one of my stories and enjoying what I’ve written.

Tell us about the early days in your writing career. What was the first piece you wrote? What inspired you?

My first pieces were children’s stories, and I was inspired by my own children. I wanted to tell them stories like my dad told me. Unfortunately, those stories didn’t find homes. The first published piece I did was for Byline Magazine and it was on grant writing. That, of course, was inspired by the grant I had written and gotten paid for. I soon found non-fiction was easier to sell than fiction, and my first articles were about things I had learned as a volunteer for our local women’s shelter.

What do you read for pleasure? What’s the book sitting on top of your to read pile?

I usually read fantasy. I love elves, fairies, dragons, etc. I also adore any kind of magic whether it’s witches and wizards or dragons who are wielding it. Right now, I’m reading Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk and a trilogy by Arthur Clarke and Stephen Baxter.

What has influenced you the most in your writing career?

That’s hard to say, but I guess it would be my dad telling me those childhood stories. Also, having an English teacher who believed in my writing and encouraged me made a big impact. I only wish I had been told that everyone, even the greats, gets rejected. When I was first trying to get published, I didn’t have any writing mentors and now I know so much more than I did then about this writing life.

What’s on your desk right now?

I have several books about witches and tarot cards. I also have a deck of tarot cards. One of the characters in my WIP uses tarot cards. I’m also thinking of having my MC in my next work have magic powers and possibly be a witch, so I’m doing a lot of research. I also have several notebooks surprisingly just filled with “notes,” The Write-Brain Workbook, Creative Calisthenics, and my own book, Ghost for Rent. Lastly, I have a lucky bamboo plant and a digital photo frame.

What’s in your future? What are you planning to do next?

I’m currently working on the sequel to my book Ghost for Rent. I write a lot of non-fiction articles and short stories too, so there’s always something I’m considering writing about. I like to enter contests for the challenge and am working on a short story contest entry right now.

Now I’d like to discuss Ghost for Rent, your middle grade paranormal mystery novel.

What is the premise of Ghost for Rent? Tell us a bit about the book.

The story begins when eleven year old Wendy Wiles learns her parents are planning to get divorced. When she is forced to leave her beloved city home for a cheaper country place, Wendy, her mother, and her twelve year old brother move to rural Warren, Oregon.

On move-in day, Wendy meets a neighbor girl who tells her their quaint country home is haunted. Events proceed quickly as Wendy, her new friend, Jennifer, and Wendy’s brother, Mike, see ghostly figures dancing in the woods. Despite Mom’s claims that “there’s no such thing as ghosts,” paranormal events continue to occur in the Wiles’ home. Meanwhile her brother Mike, arch-tease, torments Wendy, claiming he’s causing the unusual happenings.

Wendy searches through library records to get to the bottom of the mystery. Finally with Jennifer’s help, Wendy begins to unravel the truth. At last even Mike can no longer disbelieve and decides to aid Wendy in her search. By the end of the story, the three young sleuths have uncovered an accidental death, a suicide and a murder.

How did you come up with the idea?

A friend split up with her husband and moved her family into an older home in the country. She told me a story about seeing a ghost, a young boy, playing a piano in the house. It seemed like a story that had to be told. Other than that part of the story and some of the place names, the story is completely fictional.

Did you know from the beginning how you would end the book? Are you a methodical plotter or do you let the book lead you?
I had no idea how the book would end when I started it. I tend to let my characters take over and lead me through to the end. I often close my eyes when I’m working and watch a movie of what’s happening in the story.

Is there a message in the book you’d like your readers to grasp?

I hope the book opens up young minds to the possibility that ghosts may exist, and that if they do, there’s no reason to be afraid of them. I think that sometimes people leave this world with unsolved problems and that those left behind can help. I also hope the book allows young readers to escape from reality for a little while and have a few laughs, but also help Wendy, Mike and Jennifer solve the mystery.

Where can we learn more about you?

My blog is located at http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com/
Ghost for Rent can be purchased at a number of web sites including:
http://www.hardshell.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=0759910057 http://store.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book&bi=8656&si=42
http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/114776-ebook.htm
http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/penny-lockwood/ghost-for-rent/_/R-400000000000000123759
http://www.ebooks.com/ebooks/book_display.asp?IID=225738>
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/cgi-bin/item/parent-9780759903371/Ghost-for-Rent-eBook.html
https://secure.ereader.com/servlet/mw?t=book&bi=8656&si=59
It’s published by Hard Shell Word Factory.
ISBN 0-7599-0340- 9 in trade paperback, and ISBN 0-7599-0337- 9 as an eBook.

Thank you, Penny, for the interview.

All the best,
Joyce Adair

I’d like to give a warm welcome to talented author, CJ England.

CJ England credits her passion for writing to her second grade sweetheart, Steven, a blond haired cutie with dimples, who dumped her for a girl who could swing on the monkey bars. She wrote her first story about love and loss after that tragic episode.

She is a gypsy, due to her curiosity and “itchy feet”, spending time in eighteen countries, and has visited forty-two states in our own.  Even raising three kids didn’t slow her down.

Married to her own personal hottie, Jonathon, who is her inspiration, lover and bestest friend, she plans to travel the world, writing about all the places they visit.

She is known on the internet as a bestselling, award winning, author who can bring sensuality and romance together in ways that require you keep a fire extinguisher and a box of Kleenex handy.  Described as having ‘innovative story lines’, ’a whiz at character development’ and ‘quite simply a genius!’, CJ wants her books to spark the imaginations of her readers.  So they will begin to believe anything can happen if you…Follow Your Dreams.

I’d like to discuss the origins, the process and the early days of your writing.

 Where do you think your writing comes from?

I believe what I do comes from within.  I have always had stories inside me and often spent time daydreaming or writing down those dreams I’d had during the night.  I’ve always, even as a child, been imaginative and luckily, I’ve been able to use those dreams to entertain and amuse my readers.

When and why did you begin writing?

 I’ve always written.  It is just a part of who I am.  First in journals and then short stories I created just for my own pleasure.  The act of making up a story is as enjoyable to me as reading one and I can’t imagine NOT doing it.  I never really thought about becoming an author, I was a writer and to me, that’s all that mattered.  Then, one day I saw an advertisement about e-books—something I’d never heard of–and I began to research them.  To my surprise and delight there was a whole new world out there. 

One of the things that always held me back from submitting to New York was the plethora of rules and confusing questions about where and how to submit.  E-publishing was much easier to understand, and once I had found a publisher, I submitted my first work.  The book was accepted by an editor within a week, and I’ve never looked back.

 How do you come up with your ideas and settings?

I’d say 80% of my ideas come to me in dreams.  I’m one of those people fortunate to have a very healthy dream life.  For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamed my stories then written them down.  Now that I’m a published author, I do it the same way.

The other 20% come from outside sources I see when I’m awake.  A picture, a video, a TV show…numerous things will spark a creative idea and off I’ll go.  I’ve been told I can take the simplest subject, one that’s been done hundreds of times before and make it fresh and new.  To me that is a huge compliment and one I hope I can continue to receive.

 What is your process? Do you have any rituals? Do you adhere to a writing schedule?

To put it simply, I dream a story.  I have the ability to “lucid dream” or in layman’s terms, manipulate my dreams to a different outcome.  I start with the seed of whatever dream I dreaming at the time and allow it to flow through me.  Then, I let the story grow and expand, changing things as I see the need.  Most of the time I awaken with a complete story.  One that only needs a few tweaks to make it complete.  Each is filled with my signature heat and emotion and is ready for the reader to enjoy. 

I have so many dreams to share and there are not enough hours in the day to write them all down.  But I try and do a little writing every day.  I love the process and will forgo other jobs to do it.

What motivates CJ England?

Hmmm… An interesting question.  I think a lot of things motivate me in different ways.  A special gift from my husband, a fan letter from a reader, a phone call from a friend.  I’m a very moody person, so those types of things always keep me going.

In my writing, I want to excel in giving my readers more of the hot, emotional, intriguing stories that have become my signature read.  When they see my name, they will know exactly what they are getting.  A hot, sexy hero who will give up everything for the woman he loves, and a heroine who is strong, yet feminine, willing to follow her man’s lead, yet always ready to stand her ground for those things she thinks are important.  Stories that deal with issues that affect us all, put in a framework of a world that will take us away from the troubles and confusion of this one.

Tell us about the early days in your writing career. What was the first piece you wrote? What inspired you?

As I’ve mentioned, I always wrote as a child.  The first story I wrote was actually a play taken from a picture book called Two, Too Many.  I don’t remember much about the play other than the fact it was about cats, and I got a standing ovation for writing it when we preformed it at my second grade Parents Day assembly.  <smile>

As an adult, I was sleeping through a blizzard in North Idaho when I had a dream about a magical woman who with the help of six paranormal and gifted men, saves the world from evil.  That was the first time I realized what I could do with my dreams and from that sleepy beginning, a career was born.  I got up from my nice warm bed and went to my computer.  And The Peacekeeper Journals series was created.

That book and the others in the series are going to be released later this year in print as well as EBook by the publisher Under The Moon.

What do you read for pleasure? What’s the book sitting on top of your to read pile?

I tell everyone the truth when I say I read what I write.  I love romances, ones that are heart-felt, humorous and tell us a story.  I won’t read or write stories with infidelity or ménage because I don’t like cheating and for me, it hurts my heart to read those books.  I’ll defend to the death those authors the right to write them, but for me, keeping my heart healthy is too important.

I love to read all the sub-genres.  Mystery, sci-fi, historical, paranormal, contemporary…the list goes on.  As long as there is romance as the base, I am willing to try an author out.  The ones that keep me are the ones that successfully pull at my heart strings as well as make me lose myself in their world.  That’s the same goal I have for my books.

I do like some mystery authors too.  Lillian Jackson Brauns’ The Cat Who… series, The Brother Cadfael stories by the late Edith Pargeter, writing as Elias Peters, any of Anne Perry’s historical mysteries, and of course, the great dame herself, Agatha Christie.  I’ll read anything she wrote.  When I was in Dublin, Ireland in March, I was fortunate enough to visit The Book of Kells located in Trinity College.  They also had a display of first edition books by Christie as well as many other early mystery writers.  I was enthralled. 

What has influenced you the most in your writing career?

Not so much as a what…but a who.  I’ve been inspired by many people.  My mom, who is also a writer, my husband who is my inspiration and bestest friend, and various authors who have shown me what great writing is all about.  On my website, http://cjengland.com , click on the ABOUT ME page and there is a whole area devoted to the authors who have inspired me to write the stories I create today.  They are my muses and I am their biggest fan!

Some other things I’ve been influenced by are social needs, like date rape, illiteracy and teen pregnancy, or animal cruelty, gay rights and religion.  All of my books have some sort of theme in them, many I didn’t even know was there until I read the book myself.  Influences can be subtle, but I’m learning they are always around us.

What’s on your desk right now?

I don’t really have a desk.  I have a laptop which goes with me wherever I do.  But right now, because I just fell in love with them when I saw them in France, I have two gargoyles sitting on my computer. 

Their names are Ezekial and Ezra and they are the ones who protect my work from nasty viruses, spam artists and cranky editors.  <grin>  They sit beside my bed on my computer to protect my dreams as well.

What’s in your future? What are you planning to do next?

I’ve got a thousand things to do, but right now I’m doing edits on a Samhain book called Bless the Beasts.  That should be released sometime later this year.  I’m also working on the sequels to my very popular The Mylari Chronicles: Eyes of Fire.  Those I hope to have released sometime in 2010.

I’m about to start another set of edits on the sequel to Don’t Spank the Vamp.  That story is called Don’t Tempt the Phoenix and tells of how Aithne finds her perfect soulmate!

Then there is my weekly FREE READ blog at that I keep up with – http://cj-england.livejournal.com/ , my chat and newsletter list, plus several interviews, trailers and bookcovers I’m putting together.  You can say I’m a bit busy!  LOL

Now I’d like to discuss Don’t Spank The Vamp, your Sensual-Romance novel.

 What is the premise of Don’t Spank The Vamp? Tell us a bit about the book.

I guess the best way to tell you about the book is through the blurb I have on my website.  It pretty much tells you what the book is about.

Dawn is so focused on making a name for herself in the art world, her personal life has fallen into a rut. She spends far more time with her hands in clay than on a man. Then her friends liven things up by taking her to a toy shop for her birthday. A very different kind of toy shop for special sexual games. And there’s more than sexy entertainment on the shelves—a fortune teller says Dawn’s destiny awaits if only she will reach out and take it.

Aidan is a vampire who has existed for over a century searching for his one true soulmate, his twin-flame. One look at Dawn takes Aidan’s breath away. One kiss later, he knows she is the one woman who will sustain him forever—if he can convince her to walk with him on the wild side.

Dawn responds to his inspiration better than he could have hoped. Then she goes one toy too far…

How did you come up with the idea?

Now that is a funny story.  In actuality, it was a group effort. At RT 2006 I was in a seminar with Linnea Sinclair and we were all discussing catchy titles, tag lines, etc. Somehow we started tossing out titles and someone, I don’t remember who, came up with the title Don’t Spank the Vamp. We all laughed, but Linnea loved it and off-handedly challenged one of us to be the first to come up with a novel that went along with the title.

And I did.

Less than a year later, Don’t Spank the Vamp was born, filled with romance, adventure, sensual, sultry sex and enough toys to make you blush. As a novella it was a multi-award winner, and now in its expanded form, the reviews I’m getting are even better.

Did you know from the beginning how you would end the book? Are you a methodical plotter or do you let the book lead you?

I never know.  LOL  I have the idea, take it to bed with me and wake up with a story.  I tell my readers I’m as surprised as they are by the endings of my books.  I am NOT a plotter.  I love to see where the story goes.  I actually tried once, but my characters just laughed at me and did what they wanted anyway, so I pretty much decided to just give up and let them have their way.

On my FREE READ blog, I always tell my readers that I find out what is going to happen when they do.  I honestly have no idea until the story writes itself.

Is there a message in the book you’d like your readers to grasp?

I think all my stories have one thing in common.  The idea there is one perfect someone out there for each of us.  A “soulmate” or “twin-flame” that will ideally compliment us.  And as one reader put it… “Never give up on that love and fight for it with all you are!”

For Don’t Spank the Vamp in particular, the idea that came out while I was writing was…Don’t let fear rule you.  Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone and try new things…don’t be afraid to give your heart, mind and very soul completely into your love’s keeping.

And above all, don’t be afraid to hold out for that perfect someone…your other half…the one who was created just for you and you alone. Because if you aren’t afraid to wait and you find do that love, there is a whole new exciting world out there for both of you.

 Where can we learn more about CJ England?

http://cjengland.com\  My books will tell you a lot about me, there are pictures, jokes, stories, biographies and many other things to help you get to know me.

The other places to read tidbits and info about CJ England are as follows:

My Chat Group…  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CJsaysFollowYourDreams/

My Newsletter Group… http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CJsDreamtimeNewsletter/

My Blog… http://cj-england.livejournal.com/

My Travel Blog about my latest UK, France and Ireland trip.  http://cjslivingdreams.blogspot.com/

Very Important Reader Group… http://groups.yahoo.com/group/I_Read_ CJ_England/

Thank you, CJ, for a very interesting and inspiring interview.  For more on CJ England, check the links above and pickup a copy of Don’t Spank the Vamp.

Thanks for reading!

All the best,

Joyce Adair

I’d like to give a warm welcome to multi-talented author, Karina L. Fabian.

After being a straight-A student, Karina now cultivates Fs: Family, Faith, Fiction and Fun. Winner of an EPPIE award for best sci-fi (Infinite Space, Infinite God) and a Mensa Owl for best fiction (World Gathering), Karina’s writing takes quirky twists that keep her–and her fans–amused. From and order of nuns working in space to a down-and-out faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, she juggles the stories from at least three different universes in her stories. Mrs. Fabian is President of the Catholic Writer’s Guild and also teaches writing and book marketing seminars online.

Her personal marketing efforts have built her a reputation for writing faith-filled fiction and gotten her writing contracts as well as book sales. She recently started a business mentoring authors in marking.  You can find her books and her business, The Marketing Mentor, at www.fabianspace.com.

I’d like to discuss the origins, the process and the early days of your writing.

 Where do you think your writing comes from?

(spooky voice) The voices in my head…

When and why did you begin writing?

I’ve been writing stories since I had to make sentences with my spelling words. It was more interesting that way. I started writing professionally (nonfiction with the occasional story) in 1995 to earn money and interact with adults. Around 2007, I turned to full time fiction. I was burned out on magazine writing and wanted to write novel-length works.

How do you come up with your ideas and settings?

We don’t have time to cover them all. I’ll give you three examples from the DragonEye, PI universe:

“Amateurs” came from a legend I read about the fairies taking the form of insects to wage a war and a call for stories based on the Ten Plagues of Egypt. (Free to those who register on the website www.dragoneyepi.net)

“Fern Gullible” came from a prompt in The Writers Chat room forum. (Story for sale on the website.)

GapMan, the novel I’m currently working on came to mind because I wanted to spoof the superhero genre and Ronnie, a very minor character in the novels, seemed ripe for my own brand of torture.

What is your process? Do you have any rituals? Do you adhere to a writing schedule?

No rituals. I have a loose schedule. I focus on different things each day of the week: Monday, Catholic Writers Guild work; Tuesday, marketing; Wednesday, novel; Thursday, e-mail and paying assignments; Friday, webwork.  Blogs and other things are tossed in far too liberally, and the schedule changes by needs. For example, today (Monday), I wrote a scene in GapMan, an article for a diocese newspaper, two interviews and my marketing nagsletter, “The 30-Minute Marketer.” I also reviewed the next section of the bylaws for the Guild, Tweeted about the book tour I’m on, sewed chain mail for my daughter, and blogged.  I still have a story to write for a Catholic school planner I’m working on. Then, if I can get the kids to bed before I’m exhausted, I want to try to get a scene of Discovery done.

What motivates Karina?

Deadlines. Promise of payment. A really great story that won’t let go. The order changes and the importance varies, but that’s it in a nutshell.

Tell us about the early days in your writing career. What was the first piece you wrote? What inspired you?

Let’s go with fiction and professional or I’m reaching waaaaaay back. I read a story in a Christian magazine about a guy who did everything good and kind but never said the words, “Jesus, I believe in you,” so he went to Hell. Ticked me off. So I wrote a story about a guy who paid lip service to “accepting Jesus as his personal Savior” but didn’t act like it and spent a really long time in Purgatory being cleansed.

What do you read for pleasure? What’s the book sitting on top of your to read pile?

I like science fiction and fantasy, no surprise, but I read very little nowadays, which may be a surprise. I seem to only be able to write or read, but seldom do both simultaneously.  However, I’m finishing up I Have Loved thy Creation by Maya Bohnhoff, who is a great friend and an amazing writer. (I’m not in her league.)  I’m also reading, The Catholic Church: The First 2000 Years by Martha Rasmussen.

Also in my pile:

Higher Honor by my friend S.M. Kirkland

Carpathian Shadows by friend Lea Schizas

Bloody Mary by JA Konrath

The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes by Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dreyer and Anne Stuart

What has influenced you the most in your writing career?

The voices in my head. Also, my husband who is my idea man, editor, my support as well as the best friend I’ve ever had.

What’s on your desk right now?

Starting at the 9 o’clock position and moving counterclockwise:

–My open Planner notebook (3-ring binder size) with the books I pulled out to answer Question Seven and my keys sitting on it.

–a pile of books I need to write reviews on or am offering as door prizes, a hairbrush (for thinking time), school papers, my daughter’s chain mail which I’ve been working on, headphones, my to-do list (loose), the printer.

–the back-up drive, school papers I really should double-check, the envelope Higher Honor came in, disks for the new anti-virus software Rob brought home, the book I just evaluated for the CWG Seal of Approval (gets the SoA, but not recommending it for Seal of Excellence), a basket with electrical gadgets including headphones, USB wires and the PDA I never figured out…

–a large basket with the school papers and pictures I need to put into scrapbook; two cups with pencils, nail files, scissors, hairpins; a rolodex, a barrette, more school paperwork…

—Some files and my books, two empty bottles of water, earrings, my son’s medication (because I was calling in the refill), lotion, a squishy stress ball and the post-it notes that contain the outline for Discovery.

On the top shelf is my dragon collection. I also have two prayer cards and a photo of my husband taped to the back of the desk.

So, overall, not much. The usual. Why do you ask?

What’s in your future? What are you planning to do next?

I’m working on a science fiction novel, Discovery, and the third DragonEye, PI novel, GapMan.  I have a trilogy that’s at a publisher, but it’s still in the air.

I recently started a business called the Marketing Mentor. I have several programs available, including one-on-one consulting, classes, and a nagsletter of marketing tasks you can do in under 30 minutes a day. You can check out the programs at http://www.karinafabian.com/index.php?name=Content&pid=24.

Now I’d like to discuss Magic, Mensa and Mayhem your fantasy/science fiction novel.

What is the premise of Magic, Mensa and Mayhem? Tell us a bit about the book.

Hm.. The premise. Give the dragon one headache after another? Spoof every cliché I could think of and come up with new and unusual ways to use the word “puck” in a sentence?  Oh! the synopsis:

It should have been a cushy job: Vern, the dragon detective, and his partner, the mage Sister Grace, are given an all-expense paid trip to Florida to chaperone a group of Magicals at a Mensa convention. Then the pixies start pranking, the Valkyrie starts vamping and a dwarf goes to Billy Beaver’s Fantasyland hoping to be “discovered.” Environmentalists protest Vern’s “disrupting the ecosystem,” while clueless tourists think he’s animatronic. When the elves get high on artificial flavorings and declare war on Florida, it turns into the toughest case they aren’t getting paid for.

How did you come up with the idea?

My friend, Shirley Starke, edits the North Dakota Mensa magazine, the Prairie Dawg. She asked me to come up with a DragonEye, PI story, and we decided on a mystery having to do with a convention. The serial is still running and is different from the novel, incidentally, but that gave it its start.

Did you know from the beginning how you would end the book? Are you a methodical plotter or do you let the book lead you?

Usually, I know how it starts and how it ends and some of the landmarks in the middle. The characters take me the rest of the way.

Is there a message in the book you’d like your readers to grasp?

No. I don’t usually think “message,” when I write. Readers can put in their own messages; makes it easier to pass the test.

 Where can we learn more about you?

www.fabianspace.com is my website with all my books, news and bio, plus the Marketing Mentor programs. I also have some free e-books for authors–courtesy of other authors I know–and the primer for virtual book tours like the one I’m on.

Thanks for hosting me!

And here are important websites to learn more about Karina’s work.

www.dragoneyepi.net: The home of DragonEye, PI, website. If folks register on the website, they get a free story (“Amateurs,” an Honorable Mention in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 2008), and subscription to “A Dragon’s Eye View,” with special offers on stories and products.

www.fabianspace.com: Where you can learn more about Karina and her other books. I also have a lot of resources for writers including free e-books, and classes and programs on Marketing.

http://www.northdakota.us.mensa.org/karina.htm To read the serial story. Be warned–the book is quite different!

Purchase links:

http://tinyurl.com/mmmamazon – for Amazon

http://tinyurl.com/mmmkindle – for Kindle

http://www.swimmingkangaroo.com/mensa.html – to order direct from the publisher (note: the publisher can beat Amazon on International shipping.)

If folks purchase and want an autographed bookplate, they can contact me through my website, www.fabianspace.com

Thank you, Karina, for a very interesting interview.

Thanks for reading!

Joyce Adair

I’d like to give a warm welcome to multi-talented, award-winning author, Deborah Macgillivray.

Deborah Macgillivray is an award-winning, multi-published romance author with translations of her works in Germany, Japan, Brazil and soon Russia. She writes Medieval Historical Romance for Kensington books and Paranormal Contemporary Romance for Dorchester Love Spell. She is currently working on her 8^th and 9^th books, to be published in 2010. She’s a Graphic Artist, collector of medieval swords, former ballet dancer, and lives with her husband and two cats; Foutchie and Miss Fuzz.

I’d like to discuss the origins, the process and the early days of your writing.

Where do you think your writing comes from?

I wrote my first novel – 325 pages – a hot romance when I was twelve.  My mother found it, was horrified her darling daughter would dare write a sexy novel, and forced me to burn it.  Later, she was my biggest supporter, believed in me even when I doubted myself.

How do you come up with your ideas and settings?

Dreams.  I dream so much of my novels.  I recall the late Robert Palmer telling about dreaming his songs.  That he would dream them, wake up and immediately write them down.  I thought , “Yeah!  That’s how it happens”.  But anything can be a trigger.  Past memories.  Wishful daydreams.  I tend to write in my head all the time even when I am doing laundry or having the oil changed in the car.

What is your process? Do you have any rituals? Do you adhere to a writing schedule?

I write, write, write. People ask me if I sleep.  A lot of the time I don’t.  I’ve suffered from insomnia for the past five years.  I am not one who uses outlines.  I find they stifle me and kill the creativity.  I conjure characters, plop them down in a setting and then allow them to tell their story.

I generally write at night.  From midnight to 7 am is magic time!  I cannot listen to music, as it distracts me.  However, I do keep the television on, running movies that I am familiar with.  I am able to tune them out, but they provide “white noise” for my brain.  I thought this rather odd, but then my friend Dawn Thompson confided that is precisely how she wrote as well.

What motivates Deborah Macgillivray?

Tell us about the early days in your writing career. What was the first piece you wrote? What inspired you?

What do you read for pleasure? What’s the book sitting on top of your to read pile?

All sorts of things.  I love historical non-fiction. I can get lost in a history book and the world vanishes.  I enjoy Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon, Clive Barker, and Stephen King for horror.  John D. McDonald, Ellery Queen, or Ed McBain for mystery.

For my romance authors – Lynsay Sands, Cynthia Breeding, Anne Stuart (she is the TOPS in bad boys!), Rowena Cherry, Tori Carrington, Maggie Davis, and the late Dawn Thompson are my auto buys.  I also love new authors.  I think the passion and love of their story is so ‘there’.  Some new authors I really recommend:  Linda Sundstrom Thomas, Diane Davis White, Jacquie Rogers, Celia Jade, and Marly Mathews.

What has influenced you the most in your writing career?

Lynsay Sands.  She believed in me when I had just about given up.  She is the best cheerleader around.  Maggie Davis, her knowledge and encouragement, was a rock to me.  My grandfather who gave me my first typewriter.  Mum, despite burning my first book, she was always there knowing I would make it.  I am sorry she didn’t live long enough to see me in print.

What’s on your desk right now?

Four laptops, two printers, a banker’s lamp, bookmarks, various shipping labels,
and my cat, Foutchie!

What’s in your future? What are you planning to do next?

I have an August release – A Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing  for Dorchester Love Spell – 3^rd in the Sister of Colford Hall™ series, a contemporary paranormal romance.  In October, One Snowy Knight  will be released, 3^rd in the Scottish Medieval series, the Dragons of Challon™.  I am hard at work for book four in each series.  In the works also are several projects with a bit of everything–dragons and pirates and elves, oh my!

Now I’d like to discuss One Snowy Knight, your Scottish Medieval romance novel.

 What is the premise of One Snowy Knight? Tell us a bit about the book.

How did you come up with the idea?

I had the series the Dragons of Challon all planned out for 7 books, years before I ever sold.  In this instance, I was asked by my editor—the marvelously talented Hilary Sares—if I could do a Christmas book.  I had to scramble.  My series is laid out by events that happened in Scotland during that period.  I couldn’t just shift one.  So I had to come up with a completely original book, yet within that series.  I only hesitated a heartbeat in saying yes.  I really enjoyed writing the book and think it makes a solid entry in the series.

Did you know from the beginning how you would end the book? Are you a methodical plotter or do you let the book lead you?

When I start a book I know the opening, and points that will unfold.  Generally, I also know the ending.  I often write the ending after I have done three to five chapters.  It gives me a goal.  I hate plotting, yet I don’t allow the book to write itself.  I let the characters tell their story.  Skena and Noel told me their Christmas romance.  I just followed along.

Is there a message in the book you’d like your readers to grasp?

That when you love someone, many of the hurts pale besides the power of that emotion.  Accept people for who they are.  Believe, because in belief there is magic.

 Where can we learn more about you?

http://deborahmacgillivray.co.uk  is my website (email on the site)

http://deborahmacgilllivray.blogspot.com -   is my blog

You can find me on MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Gather, GoodReads and Twitter.

Thank you, Deborah, for a very interesting interview.  And for more on Deborah Macillivray, check out the websites above.

Thank you for reading and come back to see us again.

All the best,

Joyce Adair

All the best,

Joyce Adair

I’d like to give a warm welcome to multi-talented writer, Liam Stalls.

Liam Stalls is a complex man of many talents. He loves to write, take strolls in parks, the waterfront, anywhere where inspiration to write takes him. He’s single by choice because he enjoys his freedom.

I’d like to discuss the origins, the process and the early days of your writing.

Where do you think your writing comes from?

It comes from an amble assortment of books I’ve read. The passion to write entertaining stories has always been a part of my bone structure.

When and why did you begin writing?

I cannot pinpoint exactly when but suffice to say writing has always been a part of my life. As a career, I began to write four years ago and the ink in my pen hasn’t dried up yet.

How do you come up with your ideas and settings?

To be totally honest, I have what some may call a ‘warped’ mind. I see an object before me but I amplify its existence. For example, an ordinary chair for me can conjure anyone of these images and ideas:

• a seat where the last person on earth sat. An alien warrior with the natural ability to see into the past, touches the chair and envisions earth’s demise as it happened.
• The chair used to bind a victim while vicious dogs were chained nearby  to put the fear of God in him

As you can see, simple objects to me are more than what they appear to others.

What is your process? Do you have any rituals? Do you adhere to a writing schedule?

My process is to write down a quick blurb about the story before I actually begin writing. When I have the blurb then I can begin writing. That’s about it for my rituals. As for a writing schedule, I write anytime I sit by my computer. I avoid emails at all cost. I save answering emails for the nighttime when my thoughts don’t need to concentrate on moving my characters from Point A to Point B.

What motivates Liam Stalls?

Fame? Would that be too obvious to state? No, seriously, my biggest motivation is to offer quality books to readers. I’ve read countless books where foreshadows were not answered, characters read and felt like cartoon stick people, and endings caused me to search my bookshelves in case I cut the book accidentally and placed the real ending in there somewhere. These are things I strive NOT to include in my storytelling. The reason I only have one book out there so far is I prefer quality over quantity.

Tell us about the early days in your writing career. What was the first piece you wrote? What inspired you?

My actual first piece I wrote is my published book, Disoriented Dress. The inspiration for this book was an incident I read about, a woman abused by her boyfriend. Unfortunately, the world contains many such stories and I wanted to offer a story to both, women and men, to show the complexities of a relationship and how one woman, with the help of a man, deals with it. It’s an erotic romance drama that begins right away with the couple’s confrontation with an affair. The drama is intense because it involves abuse and blackmail. It’s a portrait of one woman and the decisions she needs to make in her life.

What do you read for pleasure? What’s the book sitting on top of your to read pile?

You may laugh but I recently picked up “Twilight” to read and discover what the hoopla is all about. I can honestly say the author has the touch to string you along and make her characters come to life.  I found myself sitting for hours reading…and I’m not a teen by any means.

What has influenced you the most in your writing career?

The need to accomplish a writing career before my time on earth comes and goes. Morbid? Perhaps, but we humans only have a certain time to exist and I want to make the most of it be using my creative energy and pen stories for readers entertainment..

What’s on your desk right now?

A mug of coffee, my notebook, and pen.

What’s in your future? What are you planning to do next?

I’m in the midst of writing The Blind Prophecy, about a clan of vampires and how one woman will help them reunite the other clans. I’m also writing a YA mystery/romance where a wealthy girl begins to get glimpses of things that happened to her during the period she was struck in the head by a pimp. These images are clues to what did happen, who saved her, and why she ended up about ten blocks from her actual destination when the cops found her.

Now I’d like to discuss Disoriented Dress, your contemporary, erotic-romance novel.

Did you know from the beginning how you would end Disoriented Dress? Are you a methodical plotter or do you let the book lead you?

I let the characters dictate where they want to go. I have an inkling what I as the author want to accomplish before the book ends, but with the guidance of my main characters, I find the book gets fleshed out better with their help.

Is there a message in Disoriented Dress you’d like your readers to grasp?

Yes, relationships are not easy. At times going with your gut before you make the final decision is the best way to go, especially when your gut is telling you “this is wrong!”

Where can we learn more about Liam Stalls?

I invite readers to check out my website:

http://liamstalls.tripod.com/

Disoriented Dress is available in ebook format for the high and most expensive price of $2.99. GRIN

You can purchase it at Red Rose Publishing:
http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstore/index.php?manufacturers_id=87&osCsid=4cbcc918094bc2f46a7985a2ed33b8c3

Thank you for having me here today, Joyce. I’ve had a great time.

Thank you, Liam. Be sure to check out Liam’s website and pick up a copy of Disoriented Dress, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you for reading.

All the best,

Joyce Adair

I’d like to give a warm welcome to talented novelist, Resa Nelson.

Resa Nelson is a novelist, freelance journalist, and technical writer in Massachusetts. She is a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop and has been selling short fiction professionally since 1988. The Dragonslayer’s Sword is based on a short story by the same name that was originally published in Science Fiction Age magazine and ranked 2nd in its first Readers Top Ten Poll. Nelson is a member of the Higgins Armory Sword Guild, where she studied the historical use of medieval and Renaissance weapons and gave sword demonstrations.  The Dragonslayer’s Sword is currently a Finalist for the EPPIE Award for Best Fantasy Novel.  Her next novel, Our Lady of the Absolute, will be published in July 2010.

I’d like to discuss the origins, the process and the early days of your writing.

 Where do you think your writing comes from?

I’ve been making up my own stories for as long as I can remember.  My parents read to me a lot when I was little, and I absorbed stories like a sponge.  They always put me to bed early (I probably wore them out!), when I was never close to being sleepy.  So I’d make up my own stories in my head to entertain myself until I fell asleep.

When and why did you begin writing?

I began writing my stories down as soon as I learned how to write words and put them together.  I got hooked on storytelling when a 2^nd Grade group assignment (which involved drawing pictures and writing) was a hit with the teacher and my classmates.  By the time I was 13, I mailed one of my short stories to a local magazine and got my first rejection slip.

How do you come up with your ideas and settings?

Sometimes a story will pop into my head, fully formed.  That’s rare.  More often, it begins with some kind of life experience.  As I’m sorting through my feelings, they can turn into characters and ideas.  Whenever possible, I want the setting to be something that services the story, especially with regard to what I’m doing thematically.  So my ideas crop up by themselves, and I choose the setting that I think will work best for the idea.

What is your process? Do you have any rituals? Do you adhere to a writing schedule?

My process changes all the time.  It tends to be different with each book.  I work in a very organic way, so I never try to force anything.  Getting to know the book I’m going to write is like meeting a new friend.  If you’re not kind and respectful to someone you’ve just met, you’re probably not going to see that person again.  So I hang out with my ideas and get to know them.  They gradually take shape until I reach a point where I can do a chapter-by-chapter outline.  This means I write one or two sentences to describe what I want to accomplish in each chapter.  Once I get this general outline in place, I work on 100 pages at a time, meaning, I really focus on what’s happening in that part of the story. 

My ritual for novels includes choosing a “soundtrack” (one or more CDs) that I play while I’m writing.  I usually have an index card for each major character where I list what that character wants and needs, as well as a photograph of the actor I’d cast in that role. 

My writing schedule is fluid.  I usually don’t write more than three days a week, because I think through every scene before I write it, and I usually do that when I go on my daily 2-mile walk.  I’m at my best in the morning, so that’s when I do most of my writing.

What motivates you?

In the past, women have been perceived and treated as possessions or as children.  I remember the Women’s Movement and realizing for the first time in my life that maybe I could be anything I want to be.  It’s important to me to write about women and girls who are strong and committed to living the lives they want for themselves.  Books have always felt like friends to me, and I want to put books out in the world that will be friends for other people.

Tell us about the early days in your writing career. What was the first piece you wrote? What inspired you?

Because I started writing when I was a little girl, I don’t remember much about my early work.  I participated in a summer school for creative writing for a few years (I later learned that it was actually a training program for language arts teachers and I was just one of their guinea pigs!), and I remember that I wrote a parody of a fairy tale.  I think there were two or three classes each week, and the goal was to write a new story in each class.  It was a great opportunity, and I could think of nothing more fun that sitting in a classroom and writing a new story, even though I love summer and spending time outside.

What do you read for pleasure? What’s the book sitting on top of your to read pile?

During the past few years, I’ve been reading mysteries, and my favorite author is Harlan Coben.  However, I never read fiction while I’m writing a novel, so I’m not reading any fiction right now and probably won’t for the next year or so.  That means I’m reading only nonfiction for research.  For a peculiar reason that I won’t reveal until after the book I’m currently writing is published, the nonfiction book I’m reading for research right now is Wesley the Owl:  The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O’Brien.  It’s really entertaining and sweet – I highly recommend it.

What has influenced you the most in your writing career?

Going to the Clarion SF Writers’ Workshop.  It was the first time I met other writers who were serious about getting published and becoming professional writers.  For six weeks, I left my life behind and spent all my time writing short stories, reading my classmates’ short stories, participating in critique sessions, talking to the pro writer/teacher of the week, and hanging out with other writers.  It was wonderful, and it changed me forever.

What’s on your desk right now?

I’ve never had a desk of my own, except at past day jobs in office buildings.  I hope to have a desk someday, and I imagine that I’d like to keep a vase of fresh flowers on it.

What’s in your future? What are you planning to do next?

My next novel, Our Lady of the Absolute, is slated for release in July 2010, so I’m doing things to prepare for that.  At the same time, I’m writing Book 2 (The Iron Maiden) in my Dragonslayer series.  Right now, I have 22 novels in my head.

Now I’d like to discuss The Dragonslayer’s Sword, your science fiction novel.

What is the premise of The Dragonslayer’s Sword? Tell us a bit about the book.

The Dragonslayer’s Sword is about Astrid, a young female blacksmith who makes swords for dragonslayers.  We meet her when she’s a little girl being given to a childseller by her family.  Astrid thinks she’s a monster because she’s covered in scars from having been chewed up and spit out by a dragon.  She soon meets the people who will become most important to her:  future sweetheart DiStephan (the dragonslayer’s son), soon-to-be best friend Mauri, and the blacksmith who buys Astrid and teaches the craft of blacksmithing to her so she can make her own way in the world when she grows up.  Astrid also learns that once she reaches puberty she will have the power to shapeshift and make herself appear to others however she wants.  In other words, when she’s old enough, she will have the power to make her scars disappear and she’ll blend in with other people.

When Astrid is an adult, everything goes wrong.  DiStephan is now the village’s only dragonslayer, and he goes missing without explanation, leaving everyone’s life at risk.  Terrible things happen, and Astrid’s life falls apart.  Instead of turning to someone else to help or protect her, Astrid must rise to the challenge and take control of her life.

How did you come up with the idea?

Many years ago, I wrote The Dragonslayer’s Sword as a short story, and it was published in Science Fiction Age magazine, where it ranked 2^nd in their first Top Ten Readers Poll.  It was also Recommended for the Nebula Award.  I wanted to write a novel based on the story, but I didn’t want to do it unless I came up with an idea that I loved with my heart and soul.  It took me several years to come up with that idea, and now it’s turned into a series – I think there will be about 4 or 5 Dragonslayer books when I’m finished.

I got the idea for the story because I was propositioned by a co-worker.  I was working as a receptionist, and my colleague was a vice president at the same company where I worked.  This man was married and had children.  I had always thought we were friends, but when he propositioned me, I looked at the past events leading up to that moment and felt I’d been set up.  I was horrified and deeply disappointed.  I didn’t handle the situation well – basically, I gave him the cold shoulder from that moment on.  I wished I’d done a better job.  All of that led to thinking about a female blacksmith in the Middle Ages and what would happen if she had a similar experience.

Did you know from the beginning how you would end the book? Are you a methodical plotter or do you let the book lead you?

Yes.  I always have to know the ending before I start writing.  To me, it’s like saying, “I want to go on vacation to…”  Some people might just go to the airport and decide where they’re going on a whim.  I like to plan a vacation in advance to some degree.  For example, I might say, “I’d like to go to Florida for a week and stay at a hotel on the beach.  Maybe I’ll read on the beach.  Maybe I’ll go swimming.  Maybe I’ll drive over to Orlando and go to Disney World or another theme park one day.”  And then I can book my hotel and plane trip and maybe make a few other arrangements.  But I won’t know exactly what I’ll be doing each day until I wake up that morning.  That’s what writing a book is like for me.  I come up with a basic outline but I let the characters lead me within the framework of that outline.

Is there a message in the book you’d like your readers to grasp?

I’ve been called The Queen of Theme by fellow writers.  I believe that theme is the foundation of any work of fiction.  In The Dragonslayer’s Sword, I’m saying that it’s not possible to stand up inside your own skin and be who you really are until you DECIDE who you are.  In other words, each of us has the power to decide our own character and how we’re going to live in the world, no matter what.  In this novel, I’m also writing about body image and the concept of the beauty within.

Where can we learn more about Resa Nelson?

First, at my website (http://resanelson.com), where people can read the short story version of The Dragonslayer’s Sword online for free.  Also at my website, I’m starting a blog called “The Dragonslayer’s Path:  Turning Misfortune into Fortune.”  This is a really different kind of blog, because I’m writing about my process, specifically in terms of how I take bad or disappointing situations and find the gold inside them.  I’ve made about a bazillion mistakes (and counting!), but things have always turned out all right for me because I figure out how I can benefit from any misfortune.  This blog isn’t about me giving advice.  Instead, it’s about me showing how I deal with disappointment and failure.  People tell me this gives them ideas for things they can do in their own lives, and that’s what I’m hoping will happen for people who read my blog.

I’d be happy to give away one copy of the e-book version of my novel (which is also available in trade paperback).  People can enter by sending email to me at ContactResa@aol.com with the title of my novel (“The Dragonslayer’s Sword”) in the subject line of the email message.

Thank you, Resa, for a wonderful and interesting interview. If you’d like to be entered and possibly win a copy of the e-book version of The Dragonslayer’s Sword, send an email to Resa at the above email address.

Thank you for reading and come back again.

All the best,

Joyce Adair

I’d like to give a warm welcome to talented writer, Richard Herley.  Richard, thanks for sharing your life and book with us.

Please, tell us about yourself.

My external life has been uneventful and provides scant material for an exciting autobiography. I am of Anglo-Irish extraction and was born in 1950, at Watford in Hertfordshire, England. Except for a spell in Marin County, California, I lived in Hertfordshire until 1993, when increasing urbanization drove me away. My home is now a village in the Hampshire Downs.

I was educated at Watford Boys’ Grammar School and Sussex University, where my interest in natural history led me to read biology. As my course went on I found I was not really cut out to be a scientist, but I finished it anyway and graduated in 1971. I enjoyed my time in Sussex, where I discovered its coast and down land countryside.

I’d like to discuss the origins, the process and the early days of your writing.

 Where do you think your writing comes from?

This is probably not something a writer should analyse. The source of a piece of fiction is a subconscious amalgam of its author’s personality, attitude and experience.

The desire to write at all is a hypertrophied variant of the human urge to communicate. On the one hand it is positive and life-affirming, a way of making connections with other people and sharing experience. On the other it is an affliction, blended as it is with vanity and a defiance of mortality, both of which are pathetic and absurd. Writers tend to be odd, able to accept long periods of solitude. They must be patient and perseverant also, with small regard for money since so little of it is likely to come their way.

My own writing depends on my having been educated to a certain level and furnished with an adequate vocabulary. Thus I know how to express myself, spell, and construct a sentence. That part of it is like the expertise a workman must bring to his craft. But the choice of material and the way it comes out is a mysterious product of the amalgam I mention above.

When and why did you begin writing?

I was a voracious reader as a child. “You again?” the librarian at the desk would say; my parents’ house was full of books. I attended an excellent primary school (ages 5-11) and soon learned to read. By the age of seven I had discovered that I liked writing, too. Everything about it appealed to me: the stationery, forming my letters and words, and, above all, putting them into an order that interested me.

I recall our class of eight-year-olds being given a homework assignment. The young and pretty Miss Lucas – with whom I was a little in love – told us to write an essay entitled “Fog at Sea”. I didn’t want to do that: I knew what was expected and found it boring. Instead I wrote about someone called Phineas Fogg (of whom I had vaguely heard), shipwrecked and adrift on a raft. I carefully avoided any mention of fog; I did not then know the expression “all at sea”, otherwise I would have put him in some pickle on land. My effort was received with amusement by Miss Lucas, who accepted in good part my misspelling of “Fog” because she had given us the title verbally. Her reaction made me understand that one’s imagination could give others pleasure as well as oneself. My “creative” writing dates from that incident.

How do you come up with your ideas and settings?

The ideas just pop into my head, probably after long gestation. I imagine things vividly, so the settings more or less invent themselves. Of course, stuff gets heavily revised and refined during the drafting process. Otherwise, there’s not much to be said – I refer you to Question 1.

What is your process? Do you have any rituals? Do you adhere to a writing schedule?

I usually start with a synopsis. This helps me to see the overall shape of the piece and reminds me later of scenes I have imagined but might have forgotten. I like to get the character names fixed as soon as I can. If geography is important, I’ll also draw a map, plans of room layouts, etc., to avoid making blunders which will cost me time and trouble to fix. For the same reason I construct a chronological chart, showing days of the week, birthdates of the principal characters, phases of the Moon, and so on.

Next I get to work on the first sentence, which is critical. It should encapsulate the essence of the whole book. Where possible I use the name of the protagonist as the first word.

For example, The Stone Arrow is set in the Neolithic and describes a clash between the ancient forest-dwelling hunter-gatherers and recently arrived farmers from continental Europe. The hero, Tagart, avenges a raid by the farmers in which his whole tribe is massacred and he is the only survivor. The opening sentence is this:

“Tagart came out of the woods and stood facing the broad downhill sweep of the cereal field.”

The Penal Colony describes the spiritual development of a man wrongly imprisoned:

“Routledge became conscious.”

Once the first sentence is in the can, each succeeding sentence becomes, with luck, a bit easier until I reach the last and the text is complete. I write in a linear fashion and finish each chapter before going on to the next. Sometimes I hit a brick wall and cannot continue. I’ll know then that I have taken a wrong turn somewhere – finding it is the tricky part. When I have identified the mistake I may have to discard large chunks of text or rewrite them from another viewpoint. This is galling because a good day’s work is 300 words. The reluctance to waste weeks or even months of labour is a major obstacle to getting out of writer’s block; but one has to be ruthless or the project will stall permanently and one’s confidence (never better than fragile) could be destroyed.

I have no rituals. I prefer to work at my desk and like a medium which is as simple and transparent as possible. From the age of about thirteen I used a typewriter. As soon as personal computers came along I adopted word-processing.

My schedule when a novel is in progress is to write in sessions of 90 minutes. Three of these a day, six days a week, are about as much as I can sustain.

What motivates Richard Herley?

The only reason I write is my natural urge to do so. Increasingly I wish I had been born with no such urge. It would have saved me a lot of rejection and aggravation. Mind you, the satisfaction of getting something right is a pretty good recompense. I am particularly pleased with two of my novels, both of which not only achieve exactly what I had hoped, but exceed my original ambitions for them. The others, I feel, could with advantage be rewritten.

Tell us about the early days in your writing career. What was the first piece you wrote? What inspired you?

My first thought of writing commercially came a week before my final examinations at university. I was studying biology and knew the scientist’s life was not for me, so the question of another sort job was on my mind. I sat down with my trusty Olivetti portable and started a long short story there and then, no doubt to the detriment of my exam results. I never sold it, nor did I sell the next four and a half novels I wrote and rewrote between the ages of 21 and 25.

What do you read for pleasure? What’s the book sitting on top of your to read pile?

My reading is eclectic. In reverse order, the last five books I read are After Dark by Haruki Murakami, The Comedians by Graham Greene, The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and A Passage to India by E. M. Forster. These are all wonderful novels, especially di Lampedusa’s and Solzhenitsyn’s. If I start something and find it not to my taste, I won’t finish it: there are so many other books in the world and a finite amount of time to read them in. I am about to try The Dark Flower by John Galsworthy, simply because I heard it a bit of it on the radio. The broadcast reminded me that I have never yet investigated Galsworthy.

What has influenced you the most in your writing career?

I honestly don’t know. Probably my own rather unusual take on the world. I suspect I might see things more clearly than is good for me.

What’s on your desk right now?

A MacBook, sundry bits of paper, a mechanical pencil, some CDs (Purcell, Bach, Beethoven), my Grado SR 60 headphones … er, but no work in progress (see next question).

What’s in your future? What are you planning to do next?

I am waiting to see if my shareware experiment pans out. I had planned to release another novel in the spring, and in fact have written much of it, but the returns I am presently getting from readers are so meagre that to invest more time and sweat in this project is not sensible. If things pick up I’ll reconsider.

Now I’d like to discuss Refuge, your thriller novel.

 What is the premise of Refuge? Tell us a bit about the book.

This is in fact the second thriller I have written, The Penal Colony being the first; The Stone Arrow can also be thought of as a thriller. But you know how flexible and baggy genres are. They’re really just something dreamed up by publishers and booksellers as a marketing aid.

Refuge has a post-apocalyptic setting, in southern England, twelve years on from a global plague. The hero, Suter, believes he is the only survivor. One morning he finds a body in the river near his house. Upstream he discovers a village of fifty people which has been taken over by a peripatetic gang of hooligans. Their leader, Bex, is a satanist modelling himself on Aleister Crowley: he refers to the others as his disciples. The body Suter found is that of one of the villagers.

Suter’s first instinct is to retreat before he is known to the gang. He dreads them finding his house, some miles away, for now such an abode and its contents cannot be duplicated. However, he gets drawn into the conflict and his house is discovered, at which point he realizes that he has no choice but to engage with them.

After twelve years of solitude, Suter is half-crazy, obsessed by the memory of his former fiancée, Helen, who rejected him for another. In the village, the head man’s daughter, also named Helen, is being held by Bex as a sex-slave. The two women become conflated in Suter’s mind; Bex, meanwhile, after years of dabbling in the occult, seems to be losing his sanity: either that, or he really is metamorphosing into the Devil. Like most of the villagers, Helen is a Christian with deeply held beliefs. Bex is trying to subvert these and make her recant. As the plot resolves, the story can be viewed as a direct struggle between good and evil.

How did you come up with the idea?

I’ll quote from my blog. “This book was a long time in gestation. I distinctly remember having the first idea for it, while walking in a damp and gloomy February dusk not far from my former home. The road I was on passed under a tall, brick viaduct carrying the Metropolitan Railway line to London. On the left was a wooden bridge over the river; and then came the houses: bungalows and semi-detached, with their own front and rear gardens, imprinted with their owners’ tastes and illuminated in sickly orange by sodium light.”

I was feeling glum (problems with publishers) and rather wished that those people and their houses were not there. This was in 1982; the final draft was ready in 2008.

Did you know from the beginning how you would end the book? Are you a methodical plotter or do you let the book lead you?

This was an unusual book in that I did not set out with a synopsis. I knew roughly where I wanted to go, and wrote two or three chapters just to get the feel of things. These were drafted in the first person, but that didn’t work so I switched to the third, whereupon the plot just dropped into place. I did simplify it, though, in that my original intention had been to make the whole adventure a figment of Suter’s imagination. He was to have been either a patient in a mental hospital, or indeed the sole survivor of the plague who had gone raving mad. Some elements of these ideas remain, leaving a faint ambiguity which I quite like.

Is there a message in the book you’d like your readers to grasp?

Not really. I hope readers take from it whatever they want. Its main purpose is to entertain.

Refuge is an intriguing thriller.  Why not just publish with an ebook publisher instead of going with shareware?

Ebook publishers, in the main, use digital rights management software, to which I am opposed. DRM penalizes honest readers and is easily cracked anyway. I reasoned that if one is to release text in digital form, it may as well be unprotected in the first place. Ebook publishers are not noted for their promotion budgets, so there’s not much point in giving them a cut of some inflated price. Better to pass the savings on to the reader (I ask for £1.00, about $1.50, from each satisfied reader).

Where can we learn more about you?

Fairly comprehensive info about me and my books (with carefully chosen reviews!) is on my site, http://www.richardherley.com , which also links to my blog.

Thanks for asking these questions, Joyce, and for giving me the space to answer them.

Thank you, Richard, for a very interesting interview. For more on Richard Herley and his thrilling novels, visit his website.

Thanks for reading!

All the best,

Joyce Adair

I’d like to give a warm welcome back to multi-published author, N. D. Hansen-Hill.

N. D. Hansen-Hill. ND writes fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, and horror novels, while her alter-ego Melody Knight  pens romantic prose. Whether a horror novel or erotic novella, all ND’s and Melody’s books are suspenseful. When she’s not writing, ND oil paints; her work is in 8 countries. She studies archeology with the goal of doing contract archeology throughout the Pacific Rim. Her books are published widely, with 38 published or contracted by Cerridwen Press, The Lotus Circle, Five Star, Linden Bay Romance, Red Rose Publishing, Fictionwise, Carnal Passions, Double Dragon Publishing, Drollerie Press, The Wild Rose Press, Books In Motion, and Cyberwizard Productions.

I’d like to expand on our December discussion of the origins, the process and the early days of your writing.

 You mentioned in our interview from December 2008 that research, research, research played a big part in where your writing comes from. Tell us about your research process. Where do you start? Do you use the Internet?  Do you scour through piles of research books?

Originally, I used quite a few research books. When I went back to university, though, I had access to the databases for my research. It gave me huge scope for lateral thinking. Have a question about a scientific process? Go to the source. For the Light Play Trilogy, I did enormous amounts of study about viruses and mutation, and for The Grave Images Series, I joined a firefighters’ group list on Yahoo to get an idea of the chatter within the profession. One of the men actually sent me a video of a bush fire, so I could get the visuals down correctly. When I was researching lightning photography, I was on another Yahoo list. I still belong to a dowsing loop.

You love writing scenes. Do you write them in sequence? Or do you see a scene and write it to be used later in the book?

 Sometimes I’ll write in sequence, but when I did my first book-in-a-month, I learned the value of writing in scenes to increase both my freedom and productivity. That way, I’m never stuck. I can always write a scene, then later on develop the “bridging sequences” to fill in the gaps. By then, hopefully, I’ll experience some spate of wisdom to dig me out of whatever writing hole I’ve made for myself. I never know the end of a book when I begin, but sometimes, when I’m partway through, I’ll come up with an apt ending scene and write it.

What motivates N. D. Hansen-Hill to write in multiple genres?   

I know it sounds terrible, but I get bored very easily if I stick to one genre. I like variety and constant challenges. Some of those challenges are easily met. For example, novellas are short, sweet-to-achieve submissions, that are very much in demand. I like to have multiple books, of different genres (it’s easier to keep track and keep them different that way), along with a novella or two, all on the go at once. That said, I sometimes get in over my head. During the last 3 weeks, my publishers have sent me 9 edits. I am becoming really tired of reading and fixing me, myself, and I. At the same time, it’s been a month since I wrote anything new. I have 3 books in progress. Can’t wait to get back to them!

Believe it or not there are writers out there that write, write, write and never submit for publication. What was the first piece you published? What motivated you to submit?  

Trees was my first book, and my first submission. It was the first in a 6-book series, which also limited submissions, because I could only submit the first book in the series for publication. My first published book was actually my first science fiction novel, Light Play. I always plan on submitting everything I write. At the moment, I have only 3 titles left under consideration. Everything else is published, in one form or another.

What are you reading right now?

 Cell, by Stephen King. I’m also reading another book by a little known sci fi author, which has turned out to be a big disappointment. King comes up with some interesting premises for his work. The other author, who shall remain unmentioned? Far-fetched, with not enough story to back it up.

What’s in the future for N. D.? What are you planning to do next?

 My goal is to get Triassic Trio (working title) finished, along with several other paranormals I have in the works, including one involving an alien interfering with Earth ecology. Sounds dry, I know, but it won’t be! My books are always edgy, tense, suspenseful! Triassic Trio involves paranormal archeologists, whose talents sometimes have terrifying ramifications—plus, I’m really enjoying exploring ancient trade networks for that one!

Now I’d like to discuss Gray Beginnings, your science fiction/horror novel.

What is the premise of book? Tell us a bit about the book.   

Gray Beginnings is the tale of a dowser, Jasper Gray, with an enormously powerful ability to seek out gemstones and rare metals. His is a hereditary gift, and it’s destroying his life. His family, inbred over generations to encourage their rhabdomancy traits, has terrible weaknesses in physical make-up. Jasper is a haunted man, lured in by substances in the soil that can, quite literally, trap him.

How did you come up with the idea?

 I learned to dowse when I was doing irrigation installation. It was taught to me by a plumber as a practical skill, and at first I was skeptical, until I learned to do it myself. I’ve used brass rods since to locate pipes in the ground that were in unexpected places, and at one of my children’s birthday parties, we had a game where the kids dowsed for a pipe, just for fun. Out of a dozen children, only one was unable to find it. It’s a good skill to develop, and apparently most of us possess the ability, but there’s still a mystique attached to it which lends itself to a sci fi writer.

Did you know from the beginning how you would end the book? Are you a methodical plotter or do you let the book lead you?  

I had absolutely no idea. I began with a scene—the prologue—hit the research and went from there.

Is there a message in the book you’d like your readers to grasp?

 If anything, it asks readers to allow sentiment and affection to outweigh commitment to a cause. The most important obligations in life are often not those tradition deals out, or even expectations by family or friends, but rather what you learn along the way by doing and interacting…and how you put those lessons to use.  

Where can we learn more about you?

I have a page at each of my publishers’ websites, but the best places are at my websites (www.NDHansen-Hill.com and www.MelodyKnight.com) and MySpace (www.myspace.com/ndmanuscripts). I don’t always have time to keep up my websites the way I’d like, so if you’d like really current information, follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/WritingFool). I try to pop in there several times a day with an update.

Thanks so much, Joyce, for this opportunity! Gray Beginnings is being released January 29th by Cerridwen Press, and it’s my first N. D. Hansen-Hill release for 2009. My first Melody Knight novel, Artifact, is appearing on January 14th from Carnal Passions Publishing.

I think—I hope—it’s going to be a very busy year!

Regards, and best wishes,

Norah/ND/Melody

Thank you, Norah, it’s been a pleasure. Now follow the links to learn more about this author and her books. Thank you for reading and come back to see us again.

All the best,

Joyce Adair