Wednesday, January 30, 2019

King of the Blind NBtM

Blurb:
In 1688 a plague of smallpox swept through Ireland. Like many others, eighteen year old Turlough O’Carolan was struck down. He was one of the lucky ones to survive. However, the sickness cost him his eyesight. Within two years of being blinded he’d learned to play the harp and taken to the road as a travelling musician. In time he’d be considered the greatest of all the Irish harpers. His music is still played all around the world today.

To the end of his days he always maintained that Otherworldly beings, known in Ireland as the Shee, had granted him the gift of music and were responsible for at least some of his compositions. This is a story from a time when the veil between the worlds was thinner and belief in the mystical “Good People”, was still strong.



Excerpt:
‘And you think you can win back her affection by becoming a great harper yourself, do you?’

‘At least she might look at me if I was a musician and dressed in a fine coat and hat.’

‘What would you give for the chance to win her back?’

Turlough didn’t have to think about the answer. ‘I’d give anything, anything at all, to be a great musician and to have Bridget Cruise look on me as she looked on David Murphy this evening.’

‘A harper’s life is hard,’ Crilly warned. ‘I know, for I myself took to the road with harp and horse in days gone by. You might leave your home and not return for years at a time. You might walk the length and breadth of Ireland in twelve months and barely scratch a living in that whole time.’

‘I would suffer any discomfort to learn the craft of music. I don’t care if I never see the McDermott lands or their fat cows and spindly goats again as long as I live.’

Crilly raised his eyebrows and put a hand on the young lad’s shoulder. ‘You don’t know what you’re saying,’ he replied sternly. ‘It’s the excitement of youth that’s guiding your tongue. So, I’ll try to imagine those words never passed your lips.’

‘I truly would not be grieved if I never laid eyes on this parish again,’ Turlough repeated. ‘I mean you no offence, squire, but I want to be as far from this estate and Bridget’s father as possible.’

Crilly squeezed the lad’s upper arm hard. ‘Do not say such a thing. Not here. Not on a hill where the Fair Folk might hear you. Not on a moonless night when they like to wander from their homes.’

‘Would you teach me to play?’ Turlough asked.

‘Would you learn?’ the squire replied, loosening his grip.

‘If I had the chance I’d spend every waking moment behind that instrument. I’d devote myself to study and practise until I became a master. I’d earn the title of Chief Musician of Ireland.’




Caiseal, thanks so much for stopping by. Tell us, how did you get started writing?
It all happened by chance. Nearly thirty years ago I had a market stall in Sydney, Australia, where I sold t-shirts with screen printed designs I’d created and printed by hand. One day I met a woman who asked me to show the designs to her mother who was looking for Xmas gifts for her clients. I went to visit. Her mother turned out to be a literary agent. She told me I had a gift as a storyteller and asked me to write 8 chapters of a novel. I thought I’d give it a go but I really didn’t expect anything would come of it. It took me three weeks to write those eight chapters. Before I knew what had hit me I had a three-book deal from Random House, based on those eight chapters. I’ve had thirteen novels, four non-fiction books and two graphic novels published since then.


What was the inspiration for your book?
I travelled around Ireland in the early 1980’s and met a lot of traditional storytellers. I kept hearing tales of Turlough O’Carolan- the famous seventeenth century, Irish Harper. In the end I’d collected so many stories, it just made sense to write a novel about him, combining history and all the legends I’d heard. That was the inspiration behind King of the Blind.


What’s a genre you haven’t written in yet that you’d like to?
I write in Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Science Fiction. Those three satisfy all my storytelling urges, one way or another.


Are there any genres you won’t read or write in? Why?
I’m not at all interested in the romance genre. I find it’s often so demeaning and disempowering of women, and men for that matter. I don’t know why it’s even called romance writing. There’s not much that’s really romantic about it. The whole genre is really just one painful infatuation after another leading to a sickly sweet happily-ever-after that has no long-lasting gifts to impart. I believe it creates unrealistic expectations, sells co-dependency and isn’t really an effective form of escapism either. I wouldn’t be able to write romance with a straight face. Real romance is far more interesting.



What are you up to now? Do you have any releases planned, or are you still writing?
I’m currently finishing the second chapter of my Sci-Fi graphic novel series, Veil of the Gods. Chapter One was published last year. Chapter Two is a couple of weeks away from publication. I’m also putting the finishing touches to the reworking of my first novel, The Circle and The Cross. That should be published next month. I have been very blessed to be able to have all the rights to my novels revert to me. So, one by one I’m re-releasing them as “director’s cuts” if you like. They’re complete reworkings.


Alright, now for some random, fun questions. Favorite color?
Blue. No, red. No, blue. Every day it’s different- sometimes every moment. I’ve truly got more than a touch of the ADHD. Green.


Favorite movie?    
I just saw The Grand Budapest Hotel for the first time and it has leapt to the top of my list of favourite films. Though there’s really no definitive answer to that question. I love anything by Akira Kurosawa and I can still watch “Dead Man” after a dozen times and see things I never saw before.


Book that inspired you to become an author?
No book inspired me. I was inspired by traditional Irish storytellers who I met in Ireland when I was in my twenties. That style of storytelling is quite unique and absolutely enthralling. I’ve never read a novel that captures the drama, the comedy and the depth of a real live storyteller. I don’t actually read novels very often. My mind won’t stay still long enough and gets easily bored.


You have one superpower. What is it?
Without them being aware I can convince people to be grateful for their lives and treat one another with respect. That’s the only superpower I consider worth having.


You can have dinner with any 3 people, dead, alive, fictitious, etc. Who are they?
Winston Churchill. I’m not a fan of his work. I’m just intrigued by his point of view.
Adolf Hitler. Likewise.
Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Old London Town. Love his work.

If that doesn’t prove to be a thoroughly entertaining evening that changes the world I can always get a shave with an extremely sharp razor.


Last question: Which of your characters are you most like and how/why?
I’m most like Hugh Connor, who is the storyteller in King of the Blind. He loves telling tales with a moderate amount of embellishment. He’s extremely hospitable and has an eye for detail- even if his eyes don’t work. He loves a laugh and he loves music. The only thing that Hugh does differently from me is that he likes to drink. I’ve never been too fond of the stuff myself.



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Author Bio and Links:
Caiseal Mor is an Australian sci-fi and fantasy novelist, artist and musician. Ancient Celtic Folklore has been a major inspiration for his thirteen published Fantasy novels. Mór also composes and records music, having produced seventeen albums since 1995. He is well known for his self-designed book and album covers and his intricate artworks in both traditional and digital mediums. Since 2013 he has been developing a distinctive graphic art style and creating digital sculptures in 3D.

Facebook Fan Page     |     Goodreads

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Tailwinds Past Florence Book Blast

Blurb:
After getting blacklisted from the venture capital industry, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Vaughan will do anything to avoid telling his wife what happened. Even if it means agreeing to her dream of bicycling around the world. Kara, tired of being married to a workaholic, was readying for a divorce. Now, she’s packing bags of a different kind. Together, they pedal away from Seattle, headed east on the open road across America, Europe, and beyond.

Theirs is a decision that reverberates across centuries, shattering a continuum that bound their souls throughout time, and traps Edward in a battle with a past life over an eternal love.

As the miles roll by, and the couple's sordid secrets begin to surface, the couple encounters several men plucked from history, each one a vessel of Edward’s soul in a prior life. Of them, a 19th century art dealer proves dangerous, believing Kara is his ticket back to the past.

Tailwinds Past Florence is a contemporary love story with a magical twist, landing readers in the saddle of a global bicycle adventure.



Excerpt:
With no kids on the horizon or in-laws willing to travel all that way, the second bedroom had become a land of forgotten hobbies. Dust-covered mountain bikes leaned where a dresser may have stood, a paint-splattered drop cloth took the place of a guest bed, an empty easel in lieu of a mirror.

As he rose from picking up the shoe, an unexpected absence caught his eye. The map was gone. For months it had hung opposite the door, above a bookcase lined with old college texts and a copious collection of brushes and paint tubes. Now, in its stead, only thumbtack holes in the same not-quite-white (Kara called it Saffron Lace) that covered every wall in their Seattle apartment.

She brought the map home last fall, a laminated Rand-McNally depicting every country on earth in shaded relief. Accompanying it was a proposal to bicycle around the world. She wanted him to take a sabbatical—a laughable notion in the world of venture capital—and spend a year or three traveling.

Issues of Adventure Cyclist appeared in the bathroom soon after, borrowed travel guides rotated across her nightstand, and seemingly every conversation held an air of wanderlust, with Kara pining for small towns and country roads, campfire beers at sunset. Just the two of us, she’d say in a coquettish whisper. While we’re still young. Edward could only guess what spurred her restlessness and expected it to vanish as abruptly as it emerged.

The map hadn’t gone far. A quick search found it crunched into a football of discarded fantasy, punted behind a pile of bags and boxes. By the looks of things, she’d cleaned out the closet.

He unfurled the map, exposing a runaway squiggle of black ink. His eyes locked on the map’s northwest corner, where a star marked the departure point. Home. From there, the line dipped and danced across the northern United States and Canada before dashing south from London to Spain. Onward it went, around the Mediterranean to Greece, Turkey, and beyond. Edward followed the trail, past a who’s who of countries he knew nothing about, to China and Vietnam and a hand-drawn smiley face clear on the other edge of the poster, in Bali.

She’d given up on it. No. She gave up on me.



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About the Author:
Doug Walsh made his fiction debut with Tailwinds Past Florence, a road-tripping love story with a magical twist, inspired by the two years he spent cycling the world. The novel was a prizewinner in the PNWA Literary Contest. He's also authored One Lousy Pirate, a travel memoir, and over one hundred officially-licensed video game strategy guides. Travel guides to fictitious places, as he likes to call them. Originally from New Jersey, he now lives and plays in the mountains of western Washington.

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Tailwinds Past Florence is available at the following locations:
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Friday, January 25, 2019

D'Zia's Dilemma Book Blast

Blurb:
Guardians of the Galaxy meets The Princess Bride.

The second book in the trilogy, D’zia’s Dilemma features a disembodied galactic gangster, a snarky spybot, and a sentient, lovesick spaceship. If you like non-stop action, powerful emotions, and sensual aliens, you’ll love the next installment of An Alien Exchange.

A woman betrayed. An alien duke faced with an impossible decision. Can two lovers who long to be together overcome those determined to keep them apart?

Lora Dharma Callahan excitedly agrees to leave Earth to attend “The Exchange” and meet the alien mate of her dreams. Instead of finding true love, she’s forcibly kidnapped and held captive by an alien lunatic who plans to take over the galaxy. He’s going to use her to create a serum that will ultimately enslave every human female on Earth. But no emperor wannabe is going to keep this girl down. Lora will find a way to save not only herself, but her planet as well.

Duke D’zia Yaq E’etu, cousin to the crown prince of Zerin, suspects a malicious plot to overthrow the galactic government. When the opportunity arises to insinuate himself in the suspected traitor’s stronghold, he doesn’t hesitate to use his infiltration skills. While there, he encounters Lora, whom he soon recognizes as his TrueBond. The only problem…she’s imprisoned and scheduled for experiments that will destroy her.

Now D’zia has a hard choice to make. Should he stay and get the proof he needs to prevent a narcissistic megalomaniac from taking over the galactic government…or escape with the only female he can claim as his own?


Excerpt:
She didn’t remember falling. One minute she’d been in the middle of hundreds of bodies, and the next…she was…here.

“Here” was a damp, cobbled floor. The uneven rocks painfully dug into her head, back, and bottom. With a wobbly, shaky breath, she coughed at the moldy smell of rotten eggs. Her tongue was thick and dry as she shivered in the damp air.

Oh, ick! Even her tunic and leggings stuck to her skin.

Okay, time to sit up. After a few pathetic tries, she finally levered her body into an upright position and panted, completely exhausted. Now for the next problem…she couldn’t see anything. It was so black it was hard to tell if her eyes were open. At least nothing hurt, except for her head. Yay for small favors.

She tilted her head at a distant, stomping sound. What was that? Her stomach dropped. Was someone coming?

The blackness eased into a murky gray. Wait, was it getting lighter? She blinked, waiting for her eyes to adjust. The dimness morphed into simple gray as a dull light filtered through the small door window. As the image of her surroundings became clear, she shivered and shut her eyes. Like that was going to help. There was no way to unsee she was in a tiny prison, complete with rock walls slathered in dirt and green slime.

It looked like “Dungeons-R-Us” had a sale and she was the lucky recipient.



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About the Author:
“Author of otherworldly romantic adventures”

Keri Kruspe has been an author since the age of twelve and has always been fascinated with otherworldly stories that end in Happily Ever After. Her current works, An Alien Exchange trilogy had its first release Winter 2018. The trilogy continues with D’zia’s Dilemma and concludes with Ki’s Redemption — to be released by the first quarter of 2019.

A native Nevadan, Keri resides with her family in the wilds of Northwest Michigan where she enjoys the stark change in seasons and the pleasures each one brings. An avid reader, Keri loves an enjoyable bottle of red wine, a variety of delicious foods and watching action/adventure movies…usually at the same time. You can find her most days immersed in her fantasy world on her latest novel while foot tappin’ to classic rock. When not absorbed in her writing, Keri works alongside her husband in building their dream home or discovering intelligent life in America in their RV.

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Thursday, January 24, 2019

Buzz: The Ultimate Guide to Book Marketing Book Blast

Blurb:
Congratulations, indie author!

You’ve finished your book—now all that’s left is to get it out into the world. Unfortunately, for many authors, it’s that step of the process that’s the hardest. Marketing is seen as something to be feared, dreaded, and outsourced as much as possible—a daunting task that will leave you drained.

But fear not! The team at Wise Ink knows a thing or two about how to sell your book. And they’re here to tell you everything.

Buzz is the indie author’s ultimate guide to marketing effectively, inexpensively, and excitingly. Within its pages, you’ll find answers to the questions on every writer’s mind:

• What does it really mean to “market” my book?

• How do I best reach my specific audience?

• What are effective ways to promote my book via social media?

• Do I really need to be a public speaker?

In addition to this, the Wise Ink marketing team has provided sample content calendars, email promotions, a marketing starter kit, and more to ensure you’re prepared to get out there and sell your book.

Marketing doesn’t have to be a horror story! Let Buzz teach you how to take your book to its maximum potential



Excerpt:
How do I best reach my specific audience?

You will hear us say this over and over again, as it is one of the Ten Commandments of book publishing: Know thine audience!

Think carefully about your “ideal” reader. What do they do in their spare time? Where do they normally purchase things? Where do they go for information? And most importantly, what are some unique and organic ways to get your book and message in front of them?

Hopefully, by the time you begin marketing your book, you will have already thought through these things carefully. Still, it’s a good idea to refresh your memory. Also, be concrete in how you determine your market demographics. Go deeper than the standard questions around gender, age, education, and geographic location. Those are just places to start.

When describing your ideal reader, be specific with the details that matter, such as how much time they have to read, how they might use your book day-to-day, and how they generally make recommendations to others. Another thing to do is segment your readers into three specialized subgroups—communities that align with each reader’s professional identities and personal aspirations. This helps you dig even deeper into the psychology of how to sell your book smartly and where it makes the most sense to spend your time. As an example: To market your business book, you might segment your readers into millennials and recent grads, aspiring entrepreneurs, and motivational speakers. If you've just published a sci-fi thriller, your subgroups might include fans of the popular sci-fi series Black Mirror, sci-fi writers who frequent fan-fiction sites, and people who attend conventions like WorldCon.

How does your ideal reader obtain information? Blogs? Magazines? Newspapers? Ads? What social media sites do they frequent? Be as specific as you can here. These are the places you will want to target in terms of marketing.

Where does your ideal reader shop? Think beyond bookstores. Are they frequent travelers? (Maybe they shop in airports a lot.) Do they have stores they tend to gravitate toward? Make a list of these places, and find connections there to share your book with.



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About the Authors: 
Roseanne Cheng is a former high school English teacher and author of two young adult books, The Take Back of Lincoln Junior High and Edge the Bare Garden, which won the gold medal for young adult fiction at the Writer’s Digest Self Published Book Awards and the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. She now works as Marketing Director at Wise Ink Creative Publishing where she holds the secondary title of “Author Therapist” and has the pleasure of helping authors create plans to get their work into the world. When she’s not reading a book or practicing yoga, you can probably find her hanging out with her hilarious husband of ten years and their two ridiculously awesome kids. Follow her on Twitter.

Dara Beevas believes that books can save lives, open doors, and build bridges. As co-founder of Wise Ink, she encourages authors to share powerful stories that ignite change, tolerance, and growth. She has been involved in the publishing community for fifteen years, acquiring manuscripts, managing projects, and creating marketing and sales strategies for authors and publishers. She’s helped more than four hundred authors publish their books. She is the author of The Indie Author Revolution and co-author of Social Media Secrets for Authors. When she’s not busy pushing the envelope in this crazy world of publishing and networking with inspiring entrepreneurs, she’s traveling and enjoying her husband Tomme’s delicious Jamaican meals with her daughter Genesis. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

Wise Ink Links:Website    |    Facebook    |    Twitter    |    Instagram    |    Pinterest

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Tuesday, January 22, 2019

The Mistress of Desire & The Orchid Lover - The Quest Review Tour

Blurb:
Neither Tiara Blake or Delmar Devereaux has a past to be proud of. With a joint history packed with dishonesty, blackmail—and a juicy, torrid love affair—the pair didn’t expect their paths would cross again.

Can a quest to break an ancient curse give two former lovers a second chance?

After a torrid love affair, shady businessman Delmar Devereaux disappeared from Tiara Blake’s life, leaving her to raise their twin sons on her own. So, when he shows up unannounced one day, her first instinct is to kick him to the curb.

But Delmar has discovered a centuries-old curse placed on the pair by their ancestors—and he needs Tiara’s help to break it. Ending the curse means they will have to learn to trust each other, which won’t be easy when their explosive secrets are revealed.

Once again torn between lust and duty, can Delmar and Tiara discover the true meaning of love in order to break the curse before it’s too late? Or will their complicated past doom them forever?

Join Delmar and Tiara in Book II of the Mistress of Desire and the Orchid Lover on their sensually sizzling action-packed adventure! 



Excerpt:
Delmar’s voice was sad and serious. “I come to ask the three of you for your help.  I have nowhere else to turn. The courts won’t help me. The legal system is useless,” his words tumbled out. “You see, for it was I, who started my problem in the first place, and well the courts won’t even hear my case,” he sighed heavily.

Glenda sighed. “This sounds serious if you can’t use your money to persuade the courts.”

“It is serious,” Delmar assured them. “Let me go back to the beginning. Perhaps you were aware of my case in court almost a year ago, concerning the twin sons, that Tiara Blake, had?”

“Yes, of course, it was all over the news,” Consuelo stated, in an excited Spanish accent.

“Yeah, I heard all about it too,” Nona said glumly. “The DNA found you were not the father and those tests are normally 100% accurate.”

“Yes, they are supposed to be. But there are ways around them,” Delmar paused. “You see a root worker, a spell caster. She assured me, that she could cast a spell that would exclude me as the father of the twins.”

Glenda interrupted. “Yes, but everyone knows that DNA is 100 percent foolproof and it doesn't lie. No spellcaster or root worker can mess with biological DNA.”  

“Glenda is right,” Nona stated. “DNA tests are considered infallible – they are the gold standard in court.”



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Author Bio and Links:
J.A. Jackson is the pseudonym for an author, who loves to write deliciously sultry adult romantic, suspenseful, entertaining novels with a unique twist. She lives in an enchanted little house she calls home in the Northern California foothills.

She spent over ten years working in the non-profit sector where she wrote grants, press releases and contributed many stories to their newsletter. She was their Newsletter editor for over ten years. She loves growing roses, a good pot of hot tea, chocolate, magical stories, suspense stories, ghost stories, and reading Jane Austen again and again in her past time.

Website    |    Facebook    |    Twitter    |    Amazon Author Page

NOTE: The book is only $0.99.  The first book is available for a limited time for free on Smashwords.

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Thursday, January 17, 2019

Black Waltz Review Tour

Blurb:
As a Black Waltz—a magical ballet dancer—Stella Azrith appears to all as a composed, no-nonsense sorceress of notable talent. Yet she is deeply dependent on her muse for far more than most artists, complicating her relationships. Nyte Lysander is a suave, emotional cellist who once struggled in her obsession to stay in Stella’s world. She and Stella find one another again after a tumultuous breakup, needing the other for reasons warped beyond the norm. Black Waltz is a sprawling urban fantasy romance set 350 years after The Scorpion’s Empress and 100 years after Venus and Lysander, concluding the trilogy. Can be read as a standalone.

Searching for acceptance, Stella and Nyte learn to understand each other anew, strained only by disagreements past and unspoken. Nyte’s living situation in the crime-ridden district of Maleficus in the city of Eden pushes her and Stella to pursue better artistic opportunities elsewhere. As they toy with the idea of exploring a power play relationship, they learn about a greater evil that threatens the Azrith and Lysander families. The true enemy twists on its head through whirling rainstorms, driving Stella and Nyte to prove who and what they stand for.

There can be no waltz for three.



Excerpt:
I had to stop myself from pulling Nyte inside with me.

“So…” she trailed off. “Stella…what do you wanna do—” Nyte gestured between us; “—about this?”

And yet I had to be honest with her.

“I miss you,” I admitted.

“You do…?”

I reached up, wrapping my arms about Nyte’s lean shoulders. I palmed the space between her shoulder blades with one hand; the back of her head with the other, trailing my nails through her short hair. The smoothness of her slicked back locks was such a lovely contrast to the precise, trimmed strands of her fade along the sides.

Nyte moved into me as she held my waist. She let me cradle her head in my hand, backward, as she breathed along my ear. I heard her comfort. I listened to the way she lost herself in my hold. I felt the slight tremble of her body against mine. Nyte tried to control herself, now that she had fallen past her pride.

As much as I loved this, I couldn’t linger here. Conflicting forces worked to confuse me. I wanted Nyte. I wanted her.

But I couldn’t live in both worlds: here, in this undeniable closeness with her, and there, onstage, or practicing, or simply in my room, fantasizing about all the ways I knew how to express myself with dance. The one thing that drove me, that moved me, was my muse, as the one flame that burned endlessly within me.



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Author Bio and Links:
Yoshiyuki Ly was born in San Diego, CA. Her pen name represents her multiracial heritage and a unique, diverse outlook that reflects in her work. She is a writer and a gamer, primarily inspired by thought-provoking, well-written video games such as the Shin Megami Tensei, NieR, and Drakengard franchises.

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Monday, January 14, 2019

The Young Adult Writer's Journey VBT

Blurb:
Finally, an all-inclusive book on young adult fiction must-do, don’t do and how-to. If you want to write a young adult novel, you need to read this book first. Coauthored by an award-winning YA author and an acquisitions editor, both experts on kids and what they like to read, this encyclopedia contains all you need to start or improve a career as a YA fiction author.

From an examination of the market, genre and its sub-genres, to mechanics and the business, everything is at your fingertips. This amazing writer’s resource is written in a relaxed and interesting style, with plenty of contemporary references and examples for clear understanding and easier application.



Excerpt:
Most writing classes for Young Adult fiction and Middle Grade tell you the duty of your book’s opening is to hook your reader and to catch the interest of an agent. The truth is, that’s only one of the purposes of your opening. Too often we forget that, as Frank Herbert said in Dune, “A beginning is a very delicate time.”

When writing for young adults, you should know where you’re going, just as when you write adult fiction. Plot construction for stories with universal themes is the same in any genre. There is a plan, a plot, a diagram you can follow to create a satisfying read. Just as with painting, every artist who uses the same subject will create a different and unique work of art. So, using a basic outline to be sure you write a story that resonates to the inner psyche of readers is not a bad idea. 

Some may argue that modern stories can’t demonstrate enough diversity when trying to fit the entire world into a single format such as The Hero’s Journey, but iconic success stories like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter stories and more don’t seem to mind. They’re hardly the same stories, are they? Do they seem like boring knockoffs to you? Millions of fans and dollars later...they are still growing their fan base. Lucas even spoke of Star Wars and the incorporation of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and appeared in his Bill Moyer’s series.





Janet, thanks so much for stopping by. How did you get started writing?
 I’ve been an avid reader all my life. I was helping one of my kids do a report and realized how much I like writing, doing research, and creating. I decided writing a book should be easy. I mean I’ve read so many. So, I wrote the biggest historical romance novel ever written. It had everything in it but the kitchen sink and was a thousand pages long. Once I’d written It, I had no idea how to get published. I joined RWA, went to conferences, attended workshops, volunteered, and through that ended up a newspaper reporter. Weird, I know. I was a reporter for ten years and writing every day, receiving criticism, some constructive, some not so much, taught me to be a much better writer. After I retired, I wrote a Cracker Western called Alligator Gold and it was published by Pineapple Press, a Florida small press. From there, I wrote romance and adventure fiction, then started writing young adult fiction. I love YA. Kids are amazing. They make the best characters.


What was the inspiration for your book?
My publisher asked me to write a How To for Young Adult fiction after the first book in my series, The Vagrant Chronicles, received four prestigious awards. I asked her to partner with me in the writing because she has knowledge of marketing and the industry I do not possess. Between us, we produced a complete package covering all aspects of writing a book for young adults and even New Adult fiction.


What’s a genre you haven’t written in yet that you’d like to?
I’d like to write more historical  fiction, but not yet. I have too many ideas and too much work in front of me right now.


Are there any genres you won’t read or write in? Why?
I’m not a fan of horror, though I wrote two horror shorts for a Halloween anthology published by Tell-Tale Publishing. My two, were more like Goosebumps than real horror, cute, involving teens or middle-school kids. I’ve read a lot of Stephen King, but to me, horror just isn’t all that horrible.


What are you up to now? Do you have any releases planned, or are you still writing?
Tell-Tale Publishing just put out my second book in the Vagrant Chronicles, Mutant. They also released an adult adventure fiction/thriller book called Valley of Golden Mummies. Both are available on amazon.com and at Tell-Tale Publishing. Elizabeth and I are partnering on a fantasy New Adult series called Beauties and their Beasties. We are in the editing process for the first book Annabelle and the Jackal.


Alright, now for some random, fun questions. Favorite color?
Viridian (I’m an artist, too)


Favorite movie?    
Rock-n-Rolla


Book that inspired you to become an author?
Shogun by James Clavell


You have one superpower. What is it?
I’m very intense.
 

You can have dinner with any 3 people, dead, alive, fictitious, etc. Who are they?
I’m an introvert so three invisible people.


Last question: Which of your characters are you most like and how/why?
Annabelle from Elizabeth’s and my last book, Annabelle and the Jackal. In literature, I’d say Lisbeth Salander from Girl with the Dragon Tattoo



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Author Bio and Links:
Daughter of a Colonel, Janet Schrader-Post lived the military life until she got out of high school. She lived in Hawaii and worked as a polo groom for fifteen years, then moved to Florida where she became a reporter. For ten years she covered kids in high school and middle school. Kids as athletes, kids doing amazing things no matter how hard their circumstances. It impressed her, and it awed her. “How wonderful teens are. They have spirit and courage in the face of the roughest time of their lives. High school is a war zone. Between dodging bullies, school work and after school activities, teens nowadays have a lot on their plate. I wrote stories about them and I photographed them. My goal was to see every kid in their local newspaper before they graduated.”

Janet love kids and horses, and she paints and writes. Now she lives in the swampland of Florida with too many dogs and her fifteen-year-old granddaughter. She started to write young adult fiction with the help of her son, Gabe Thompson, who teaches middle school. Together they have written a number of award-winning YA novels in both science fiction and fantasy.


Elizabeth Fortin-Hinds knows kids well. She spent decades teaching teens and adults to write and improve their reading skills. As a literacy expert and certified coach, she helped both teachers from elementary to secondary and preservice graduate students learn to improve reading and writing instruction. She has taught at both the secondary and graduate level, everything from rhetoric, essays, and thesis statements, to poetry, short stories, and how to write a novel. She has learned to use both sides of her brain simultaneously, but enjoys the creative side the most, learning to play piano, draw and paint, and find time for her own writing since retiring from her “day” jobs. 

A “true believer” in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, mythic structures, she uses that lens when considering manuscripts for Tell-Tale Publishing Group, a company she founded with some friends from her critique group a decade ago.


We are a small press, a traditional publishing company bringing you the best in E-books, print and audio books to feed your body, mind and spirit.  Our cutting-edge fiction includes old favorites and edgy speculative fiction for today's eclectic readers.  Our stories will grab your attention and take you on a fast, exciting ride that will leave you breathless. WW, our affiliate, publishes select literature under our Cosmos Imprint and nonfiction titles under our Ivy Tower Imprint. 

Founded in 2009, in Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Our company motto of "excellence in creative entertainment and learning, " informs our artwork, manuscript selection, editing and publishing. 



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