Interview with Author C.M. Skiera

 

Author of A Plea to a Frozen God

How do you find/make time to write?
I try to establish routines and carve out time each day, although, to be honest, I’m not the type of writer who writes every day. I’m more of a streaky writer, where I will have very productive stretches of several weeks, and then drop off to nothing for a while. But I think it’s important that even on days you don’t end up writing, you have the space in your schedule for writing-associated activities. Often times, if I’m not writing, I still do something related to the craft, whether it’s research, website maintenance, marketing, learning, networking, etc.
 
What was the hardest part of writing this book? 
Honestly, the pandemic really slowed me down. You would think quarantine and isolation would be beneficial to a writer, but for whatever reason, my productivity during those times was not good.
 
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I enjoy character-driven fiction, and the three main characters in this story really came to life inside my head. I enjoyed developing them, and crafting their interactions with each other, which I think is an integral part of the story.
 
What do your plans for future projects include?
I want to revisit the first book I ever wrote (and never published) and see if it is worth a second look. I still think there’s a good story at the heart of it, and my skills have developed significantly since then, so I’m hoping to whip it into shape. I may do some editing and re-drafting and introduce it to the world.
 
I’d also like to write another book in the same world as Plea to a Frozen God. There’s certainly plenty more to explore in this world, and mysteries left to reveal.
 
Where can readers find out more about you and your books?
My website has a lot of extra features, like artwork and maps that allow the reader a glimpse into how I imagined the worlds I create, and I blog occasionally. I’m also on social media a little bit, primarily on a site called Counter Social. My links are below:
 
Website:  http://cmskiera.yourresearchhelp.com/
 
Blog:  http://cmskiera.blogspot.com/
 
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004136952025 (as CM Skiera)
 
 

Let’s Add Some Fun!

 

If you could choose three people to invite for a dinner party, who would they be and why?
That’s a tough one. So many fascinating people to choose from. I’d say author Isabel Wilkerson, activist Greta Thunberg, and former President Obama, because they are all such intriguing, successful people that I think I could learn so much from them.
 
City or country?
I’ve lived in both for many years, and I’d have to say I’m a little bit more city folk, though I do love the country.

Read by a cozy fire or on the beach?
Definitely the beach, though I’ve nothing against cozy fires. 

Interview with Author J.L Knight

 

Author of Glintborn Fools

How long do you typically take to write a book?
A: My debut book took 8 months from start to finish. However, I didn't start with the intention of writing a book. I had written a ton of material for two different tabletop games that fell apart due to scheduling problems. I channeled my creative frustration into my note-taking app on my phone before bed every night, and by December, I had a terrible first draft of a manuscript. My husband encouraged me to finish the book and publish it.

If you were to watch your favorite book (which hasn’t been turned into a real-life motion picture) turn into a movie, which would you choose? Or would you rather it remain as a book?
A: There's some recency bias here, but I adore Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. The book has a unique frame story where the main character is being interviewed by one of his vampire captors, which I think would work nicely on film.

Have you ever taken any advice from other writers? What’s the best advice you’ve received?
A: I'm a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson's advice, which he shares on social media. I've adopted his outline framework for the sequel to Glintborn Fools and found the outline tool to be wildly helpful.

Q: Who are some of your favorite authors that influenced you to write?  What impact have they had on your writing?
A: It may be a bit cliche, but I always loved the writing in the first Harry Potter book. The writing is simple, direct, highly accessible, fast, and fun to read while still painting a detailed picture of the world. I aim to achieve this same effect in my writing. However, I still have a lot to learn!

Q: What was the highlight of writing this book?
A: When I held the printed book in my hand for the first time. Aside from my two incredible editors, I did everything from writing, doing the interior layout, making the book cover, and recording the audiobook. Pulling the book out of that white Amazon package and seeing my hard work manifest was incredible.

Q: Where can readers find out more about you and your books?
A: You can follow me on Goodreads and Amazon, or join my newsletter for more updates!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0D92YQGNZ/about

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/50974939.J_L_Knight

Newsletter: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSecJ42MyHKNPYpYy4UCScjgUUA-TWeSB-kx-_Mj82sENGJEzw/viewform

Let’s Add Some Fun!

 

Q: What’s your favorite food?
A: Anything pretzel, especially if it's stuff with peanut butter.

Q: What is the best part of your day?
A: In the evening, after the kids have gone to bed, I can play video games.
 
Q: Would you rather live in a haunted mansion or live in a un-haunted cottage?
A: I don't mess around with ghosts. Give me the cottage!
 
Q: Movie or book
A: Why not both?

Interview with Author Aengie Scevity

Author of The Owlbear and the Omens

Where did your love of books/storytelling/reading/writing/etc. come from?
I have just always read. I remember reading with my parents as a child at bedtime, writing stories in a friend’s treehouse, and sneaking into the library at lunchtime to read. I remember when we read books aloud as a class, I would hold a finger in the book to mark the class’s progress so I could read ahead and flip back when it was my turn to read.
Tamora Pierce was probably my first great love affair with reading and I still cherish those books. For adult fiction I love Jennifer Fallon, and fans of her Hythrun Chronicles will notice her influence upon The Owlbear and the Omens. Nowadays I have settled on Diana Wynne Jones as my favourite of all time; her ability to transcend genres and seamlessly blend mythologies makes my heart so happy.
 
How long have you been writing?
I have always written, in one form or another, but resisted chasing the dream of being a writer; I knew it would be near impossible to find success. Eventually though I simply had to see one story to its conclusion. A piece written during my undergraduate degree didn’t sit right as a short story and instead became the creative component of my doctoral exegesis completed in 2019. I still hold hope that that manuscript will get picked up by traditional publishers one day, but no luck yet.
 
Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?
There is a unique experience in re-reading one’s own work, like looking into a time capsule of the things that influenced you at the time of writing. There is a scene in The Owlbear and the Omens where a lord makes a surprise appearance at an event and his men exclaim, ‘it’s Lord Bastian! Lord Bastian has come to see us!’ At the time of writing, I was playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance and as the player character, Henry, approaches groups of soldiers they exclaim, ‘it’s Henry! Henry’s come to see us!’ The line always made me laugh and so it found its way into the book.
 
What book is currently on your bedside table?
I most recently read The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins and fell in love. It’s a sublime piece so meticulously pieced together that really shows the dedication and craft of the writer. When writing we are often told to ‘trim the fat’ and ‘kill your darlings’, meaning to cut out any unnecessary padding or things that simply don’t work for the narrative. The Library at Mount Char is streamlined and honed to precision. Absolutely everything in the book is necessitated by everything else, like a piece of clockwork engineered to peak efficiency. The story unfolds beautifully with information delivered at just the right pace and enough left to the reader’s imagination that nothing breaks the suspension of disbelief. The blurb doesn’t do the book justice; if I had to describe it in one sentence, I’d call it ‘a dark fantasy uncovering the mysterious disappearance of the curator of a reality-bending library, a man who predates much of humanity, and the power vacuum left in his place.’
 
Where can readers find out more about you and your books?
My debut The Owlbear and the Omens is available on Amazon to purchase as an ebook or paperback or read through Kindle Unlimited.
 
What challenge did you never anticipate in writing?
Categorisation! The thing I love about Diana Wynne Jones is that she wrote across multiple genres and it is something I endeavour to do also. However, there is so much ‘procedure’ in the commercialisation of literature that if a book sits between categories it seems to fall between the cracks. The Owlbear and the Omens is many things – low fantasy, political thriller, reverse harem – that might cause someone to ‘judge it by its cover’ so to speak. The biggest issue I’ve had with this novel is readers expecting erotica from a reverse harem where the trope is instead played for political machinations. Every component of the reverse harem is plotted for gain, be it politics, resources, or even silence.
 

Let’s Add Some Fun!

 

E-book or physical copy?
I was a physical copy girlie for years, then I moved house repeatedly over a short period. There’s only so many times I can carry huge boxes of books into and out of trucks and up and down stairs before I start to second guess my choices. I’ve now pared my collection down to just the favourites (still in a box at this point, oops) and buy ebooks instead. If I really love a book, like The Library at Mount Char, I will buy the physical copy too.
 
Tea or coffee
Tea, and perhaps a bit too much. Every day starts and ends with tea. Usually just a simple English Breakfast with milk, sometimes a green tea, sometimes a lapsang souchong. I like peppermint tea for tummy aches and chamomile in the evenings, but ninety-nine times out of one hundred, you will find me drinking a regular English Breakfast with milk. Usually tepid or even cold, because I can’t keep track of time.
 
Read in silence or with background music
Silence, absolutely. I can tolerate a little light music and background noise but I would much rather sit in silence under a blanket letting the book unfold in front of my mind’s eye with a cup of tea to my side – gone cold, of course.

Author Interview with David Preston

 

Author of Unknown Soldier 

Can you share with us something about the book that isn’t in the blurb?
The book is a coming-of-age story for a young man in Southwest Alabama. While trying to make his way in life in the big city of Mobile, life happens. Instead of becoming the carpenter apprentice that he wants to become, he ends up taking a job at the docks in the city to provide for himself and income. While in Mobile, the Pancho Villa raids into New Mexico happens, which is the impetus for him join the Alabama national guard which Carry them both to the American southwest, and to the front lines of Europe, where he finds friendship and love.
 
What was the inspiration for the story? 
Ever since I visited Arlington national Cemetery as a child, I'd always thought to myself, “ what were the lives of the men buried at the tomb like?” That thought has always stuck with me, and in high school I thought to myself that it would always make a good book to write. Over the years, as life happened, the thought never went away, but it did evolve. It evolved from a one book idea, a series of books, one book covering each Soldier that is or was buried there. There. I always knew that I wanted one of my main characters to be from Mobile Alabama, and when. I was doing. Research into how the bodies buried at the Tomb ended up there, I discovered that the famed 42nd Rainbow division fought in some of the same battles whose dead we're buried at one of the cemeteries from which the body was selected from. When I discovered in my research that the Alabama 167th National Guard unit served in the 42nd Rainbow, the rest for the story line just fell into place. The experiences of the character in the book, especially the lighter moments in the midst of training and battle are taken from anecdotes of real life experiences of soldiers that served during that time in the Alabama 167th.
 
Are you working on anything else at the present you would like to share with your readers about? 
I am finishing up a project titled 1828 right now. It is an alternative historical fiction novel that will be out by the end of the summer. While certainly not intended this way, it will become an indictment of the 2024 election, and the candidates in the the 2024 election using The 1828 presidential electoral rematch between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams. I am also going to have out by the end of the year a Modern-day organized crime murder novel titled “The Killer Family”. I am also currently researching information for the follow-up novel of Unknown Soldier, based off of a World War II character.
 
What do you like to do when you are not writing? 
Like most authors, I enjoy reading during my off time, and because I grew up the son of a history major, I grew up going to civil War battlefields instead of Disney World and six flags. I continue to enjoy doing that as an adult.
 
What comes first, the plot or characters? 
Honestly, it depends. Some stories I find it better to develop the plot first, and then fill in the characters as you're developing the plot, and sometimes I find it is better to develop the characters, and then develop the plot around the characters.
 
Where can readers find out more about you and your books? 
I have a author website davidlpreston.com you can also search for my author page on Facebook, David l. Preston, find me on Twitter @dpreston2020 and Instagram and Threads @davidpreston61

 
Let’s Add Some Fun!

 
Would you rather have an endless summer or an endless winter? 
I live in Mobile, Alabama where the summer time is regularly. The upper '90s with 95% plus humidity, and Winters are usually in the '60s with 50% humidity. I would prefer endless Winters LOL
 
Morning person or Night owl 
I'm a very cranky Beaver until I've had breakfast and had a chance to catch up on the morning news, joe, I guess more of a night owl.
 
Favorite artist and favorite song? 
While I do not have a favorite song, in particular, I do enjoy plenty of artists in the country, music space and Southern gospel realm. Some of my favorite artists currently, are Julia Cole and Alli Walker, both up and coming independent country music artists, and groups in the southern music realm like The Hoppers, Triumphant Quartet, and the Gaither Vocal Band.

Struck Interview with Clarissa Johal

Author of Struck

When did you realize that you wanted to become a writer?

I wrote my first short story in grade six. I was asked by the teacher to read it aloud to the class, which terrified me.  After I was finished, I realized that I actually had everyone’s attention!  I was shy and we moved every year, so I was always the new kid. When you’re in that situation, it’s kind of like being invisible. Finding my voice through story-telling made me realize how powerful writing could be.

Is being an Author all you dreamed of, or did it just happen? The best and worst thing about it?

I have dreams of hitting the best seller list, I think all writers do.  I’ve managed to contract every book I’ve written with a publisher, so I can’t complain. A lot of it is luck and timing. The best thing about writing is that I choose my own creative projects. The worst thing is that I have yet to meet with Tim Burton to discuss a book to movie deal. And I can’t get Neil Gaiman to return my calls. (haha)

What was the very first thing you ever wrote?

Well, like I said, I wrote a short story in grade six. It was about a shark attack and ridiculously dramatic and scary. That was around the time Jaws came out. I don’t think I took a bath for a week after I saw that movie.

What made you create (your book)?  How did it come to you?

STRUCK came to me while running on a forest trail near my house. It was during a thunderstorm, which I find invigorating. At the time, I wondered what it would be like to be hit by lightning. Survivors suffer aftereffects that are anything but entertaining. Being a writer, however, I pondered upon receiving such a huge burst of energy. I write about ghosts and things that go bump in the night and in essence, those entities are energy. What if a portal was opened by a lightning strike? And what if that portal allowed the energy from those entities to escape? The idea was intriguing and I went to bed still thinking about it. That night, I had a dream that I was standing in a field, with lightning striking the ground all around me. But the lightning wasn’t just releasing electrical energy, the lightning was releasing negative entities from the Otherworld. I woke from the nightmare in a panic, thinking those entities had somehow attached themselves to me. And so a story is born. I went on to research the effects of being struck by lightning, interviewed several lightning survivors, and the story unfolded from there.

Who is your literary hero?

I don’t have one. Heroes are not my thing. The concept is too subjective.

How much of your characters are based on your traits or someone you know personally?

My characters come to me fully-formed, so they aren’t based on anyone. I write what they tell me to, and they can be very bossy! Sometimes, I’ll see someone who will intrigue me and I’ll put them in a character file, but it’s based on their appearance, rather than personality. I’m a very visual person.

Describe your main character in six words.

Gwynneth is creative, supportive, trusting (although that’s tested quite a bit!), loyal, protective and compassionate. You know, the good traits that get you into trouble.

Describe the world you’ve created in six words.

Dark, multi-layered, secretive, dynamic, possibilities, cyclical

What scene was your favorite to write?

The scene where Gwynneth is trying on a dress and sees what she sees in the mirror (no spoilers!). I saw that scene in a dream, so it was like watching a movie unfold. The scenes between Seth and Gwynneth were fun too—they know what makes each other tick. You can see the potential for a relationship beyond a friendship but they haven’t “gone there” yet. The dynamic between Poppy and Dante was fun too.

What scene was the hardest for you to write?

Saying good-bye to Julian was SO hard. I have a very difficult time letting my antagonists go. I always try and present (to the reader) why they are the way they are. I wanted Julian to be redeemed in some way and wrote the last scene over and over. Is he consumed by the dark entities? Does he decide to help Gwynneth in the end? No spoilers, but I’m happy with the way the book ends.

What are you working on now?

I was just offered a contract for my paranormal horror novel, VOICES. I’ll keep readers posted on that in my website. I’m working on another novel right now titled THE ISLAND. I expect to be done with that by the end of the year.

Goals? Accomplishments? Improvements?

It usually takes me a year to write a book—so my goal is to publish a book a year.

Are there any authors or books you recommend?

Anything by Neil Gaiman, you can’t go wrong with him. (And yes, I have a little writerly crush going on, don’t tell anyone.) Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood series will get under your skin. It’s one of my favorites, I highly recommend it. I just read Simone St. James novel, Silence for the Dead. I love her writing, it’s very atmospheric.  If you like paranormal thrillers, the Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens is good too.

What's your favorite thing to do when you're not writing?

I’m a dancer, so my ballet room is where you’ll find me!

TimeSpell Interview

Why don't we start with getting to know you. Tell us a little about yourself.

Let’s see… I’m technically an adult, but I’m most definitely not a grown-up. I grew up both on Miami Beach and in Los Angeles, and was both a bookworm and a cheerleader. I have a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies, I taught third grade, and my very first job was at a movie theater. I love thunderstorms, warm cookies, anime, snowy cabins, sunny beaches, and video games.

Timepsell is your first published novel. Is it the first book you’ve written?

No. Timespell is my fourth completed novel. My first novel is a historical romance set in Medieval France with a knight and a damsel and—oh, the damsel was kidnapped by nefarious villains at least four times. She had amazing fainting spells and she could cure almost anything with herbs and flowers. When I realized that my first novel had a lot of problems, I decided to view it as a learning experience, and started my next idea: a young adult paranormal romance that was rather meandering and filled with altogether too many villains, side characters, plot holes, and dropped plot threads. This was another learning experience novel, and I have no regrets about either of these stories. Then there is my other young adult novel, this time a fantasy romance set in a magical world. I have to admit, I have a soft spot for that story. I consider it an old flame that won’t die out, and someday I may rewrite it. Even if I don’t, and even if I never complete any of the half dozen unfinished stories slumbering on my hard drive, I value the time I’ve spent writing all of my stories.

How did you come up with the idea for Timespell?

The idea came when I thought up a scene about a pair of time-crossed lovers, and the scene wouldn’t leave my thoughts. I wrote it down, and from there everything started falling into place. The idea of two best friends, completely excited about having magic so they could travel through time to fulfill their destiny, only to realize they can only keep their power if they join with the most evil girl in school? That was too much fun not to write.

The main characters in Timespell have the ability to time travel. If you could time travel, would you go into the past or into the future?

Oh, that’s so tough… as much as I adore history, I’m too curious for my own good, and I would choose the future.

Is Timespell a stand-alone novel or is it planned as part of a series?

Timespell can definitely be read on its own, but I wrote it with the idea of a series in mind. I’m currently working on the next book, in which the girls will be sent on a mission back in time to the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy. I’m thrilled to be joining Julia, Angie, and Kaitlyn in another adventure, especially one involving sword fights and treasure.

In TIMESPELL, the brash and impulsive Julia must team up with her sweet and straight-laced best friend, Angie, and the malicious and power-hungry Kaitlyn in order to keep the witch-like powers of her inheritance. But these powers come at a cost. The girls are bound to serve the Fates, and their first mission sends them back in time to Marie Antoinette’s Paris and eventually, into the chaos and war of the French Revolution.