Month: October 2015
Halloween MEET and GREET! Leave your Link!!!
Huntober Highlights ~ AJ Flowers ~
Today’s Huntober Highlight is AJ Flowers. Born and raised in Key West, FL, she now resides in Detroit, MI for the automotive industry.
She writes a blog and is the author of Fallen to Grace, a YA Angel Fantasy, and is in the works of securing a publisher for her book.
Let’s find out what this up and coming author is all about:
Do you have a favorite book/author?
Brightly Burning by Mercedes Lackey. It’s about a firestarter… enough said.
Where do you do most of your writing?
Usually on the couch with my laptop and a nice cup of coffee. I hate trying to write in noisy coffee shops. I don’t know how anyone can concentrate!
When did you start writing?
I wrote poems in middle school and high school, but it was only when I went to college that I started to write a novel. Since I was one of the only girls in engineering, it was hard to make connections, so I turned to writing in my free time. It started out as a short story, but four years later it was a completed first draft of a trilogy.
What’s your favorite type of writing to write? To read?
I always say that I live in the real world, so I don’t want to read or write about it too! I love stories that create a new world completely different from the one I live in. That’s why I enjoy high or epic fantasy so much. I’ll tolerate urban fantasy, I’ve even started writing one, but it’s not my true love.
Do you write to background noise?
While I prefer peace and quiet, I am not the only person in the world. I usually tune out my husband’s video game or my cat’s howls while I try to write 
If I want to listen to music, it can’t have lyrics and I need it very quiet otherwise it’s just distracting.
Do you scribble your ideas on paper? outline?
I keep a “muse-book”, as I like to call it, with me at all times. If I have ideas or epiphanies, I’ll write it down. I keep a list of facts, places, and people’s descriptions. My worst nightmare is writing about a side character with short, black hair, and then at the end of the book he has long, blonde hair because I completely forgot.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I don’t really understand what people mean when they say they need “inspiration”. I just sit down and start writing. I approach writing the same way I do drawing or painting: With one line. It turns into two, and then it keeps going until I’ve made a face or a tree, then I start to shade it and make it more and more detailed and believable. Then at the end, it’s a finished piece. I don’t know what it’s going to look like when I start, but with an eraser in hand I can take out lines that don’t make sense until I have a solid piece.
It’s the same for writing. I’ve written a trilogy, a stand-alone novel with series potential, and now I’m currently working on a novelette. All of them started in more or less the same way. I have a single idea, or even just an emotion, that develops first paragraph or chapter. It always starts with an inciting incident, and if I haven’t come up with what is going to be the main conflict, I brainstorm for a short-term outline. I won’t make a detailed outline, because if I try, my characters won’t listen to me and I’ll have written an outline for a story I won’t write. But I do outline the next few incidents and see where the plot takes me.
Because of my style, I’ve junked entire chapters and even characters in the revisions. It may be the long way around to writing a novel, but it’s my process.
Back to the original question of “inspiration”, I think everything inspires me. I’m moved by nature, my faith, and the art in human emotion that is around us every day. There’s an endless supply of mystical and beautiful things if we take the time to consider them.
Who is your favorite character that you have created?
That would be Damian. No one will get to meet him for quite a while, as he isn’t really introduced until the second novel in my trilogy. The first novel, Fallen to Grace, is finished/edited and I’m looking for the right agent to represent it. So it’ll be some time before the second novel makes it through the final revision and publishing gauntlet.
It’s hard to say what I love about Damian, because he’s a major character in the second and third books, so I don’t want to give away his character arc. But to put it briefly, he’s an angel with glowing eyes, a cocky attitude and a pack of abs that just won’t quit. Wait I just think I found out why he’s my favorite…
~Connecting with AJ Flowers~
If you missed the link to her blog, here it is again 🙂 :
Social Media Connections:
https://www.facebook.com/alyssajflowers
https://twitter.com/AJFlowers86
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/alyssajflowers
Swimming in an Indie World
Have you ever jumped into a pool on a summer’s day? Most people have, but if you haven’t let me describe it for you:
You stand at the edge of the pool, the sun beats down on you. People around you are watching, waiting for the splash. The water looks so cool, inviting. A nearby kid splashes at you, daring you to join her. Despite the sweat on your back, you shiver. You know that the water’s coldness will be a shock at first, but you’ve come so far, no turning back now. You hang your toes off the edge as you take one last deep breath, bend your knees, and push off. A moment of exhilaration takes over as you fly weightlessly before water envelopes your body. Splashing sounds and muffled screams of joy register just before you bob to the surface. The water’s no longer cold and you’re glad you jumped in. You look around to find that girl that splashed you earlier. Time to join the fun.
This is what it feels like to publish as indie author. Well, to me, anyway. I spend a lot of time around pools, and around swimmers. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much swimmers and authors have in common. Here’s my list:
Swimming is an individual sport, with team support and effort. The same goes for indie authors.
When you’re a swimmer, the only time you’re really trying to beat is your own. Stats are listed by a swimmer’s fastest time and the biggest goal at a meet is to swim faster than that. And what does your team do? Stand at the end of the lane and cheer you on. Congratulate you when you beat your time, and give you encouragement and support when you don’t out-swim yourself.
As an author, your work is your own. And what are you trying to beat? Your own sales, your own numbers on your social media, your own story with your next, even better, story. Your team is other authors, people just like you. They congratulate you on your recent work, follow you on social media, and give you advice when something doesn’t turn out the way you planned.
Technicalities will get you every time.
In swimming, being the fastest doesn’t always mean being the best. There are judges watching you, walking up and down the lanes, making sure you are using the correct kick, the right stroke, that your arms come completely out of the water when they are supposed to. If you mess up, you get disqualified. In fact, the first season my daughter swam, her goal for the entire summer was to not get disqualified. That’s right. There was a person waiting at the end of the pool to tell this sweet little face 
that she didn’t two-hand touch.
As an author, especially an indie author, technicalities get you everywhere. Can’t get your formatting just right? It’s noticed, or kicked backed to you with an “un-submit-able” email. Miss a word or have typos? It’s noticed. Even paid editors and beta readers can miss something. And if you’re an Indie, there isn’t a publisher to blame (Yes, I’ve seen my fair share of typos, spacing issues in trade-pubbed books.) Don’t know how to tag or categorize your books correctly? Well, that’s a science in itself, lol.
You Gotta Pay to Play
Swimming is an expensive sport. Fees alone can be up to $150 per swimmer, per season. You need a team suit, right? That’ll be $50. Swim cap with your team’s name on it? $12… and you better get extras. Goggles? $10 -$20 depending on your swimmer’s preference. And that’s just the basics. There’s also towels, practice suits, special shampoos and conditioners, sharpies and programs at meets, invitational fees, and backpacks for swimmers to carry all that stuff in.
So what do indie authors pay for? All you need is your computer or a pen and paper, right? Wrong! You need editors, and you’re either going to pay in cash or time, or maybe both. Self editing is not a good idea. What about a book cover? You can buy a professionally made one, buy the tools you need to make a good cover, or go at it with basic tools, but the latter may cost you in time and frustration to get it in a good quality. And then there’s advertising. Sure, there are opportunities for free advertising all around us, but the cost is time. This blog, for example, is free, but takes about ten or more hours a week to keep it up and going.
We Have our Own Culture and Language
Hours a week sitting a glass walled room over looking a pool. Getting up at 6 am to make 8:30 warm ups. Spending an entire Saturday at the edge of the pool with a timer, or going back and forth from gym to pool as events are lined up. If I say to another parent, “Do you have the pen? She just DQ’d on her fly for a flutter at the end.I’m going to talk to her.” That parent will know exactly what I’m saying.
In the indie author world, we meet online for sprints, crit each others work, trade information and blog interviews. We give up free time to peck at a computer or carry a notebook to our day jobs to scribble ideas down as the come to us. Conversations go more like this: “Do you use Smashwords or Wattpad? Is it mophi or epub I need for KDP?”
The Rewards
At the end of a swim season, there is always a banquet and swimmers are recognized for best in age group, most improved, and a variety of other things. Place ribbons are given for every event. But that’s not the rewards I’m talking about here. I’m taking about the real rewards. Teamwork, discipline, exercise, and confidence. My daughter and her friends spend a good portion of their life running around in swimsuits, and they’re completely comfortable with that. When you’re preparing for your event, or cheering a friend on, you’re too busy focusing on your sport to worry about what your body looks like.
As for indie authors, we may not all start the gate completely confident, but as we go on, we fake it until we make it. No one is going to be as enthusiastic about my work as I am, and when I’m the new girl in town, no one’s going to shout my name from the rooftops, so I’d better be prepared to. Along the way, we meet our own team, learn the discipline of setting our own goals and timelines, and find people who are just as excited about our work as we are. And some time during our journey we transform from “just a self-pubbed author” to ” Indie Author – and Proud of It!”
If you read this, and you aren’t and Indie Author, find one and give them a hug. They deserve it. And then share this post so that someone else will read this, and more hugs will ensue. If you are an Indie Author, give yourself a pat on the back, and feel free to shamelessly plug your work in the comments. It’s free 😉
And now, for you scrollers that don’t stop scrolling, my own shameless plug. I’m doing a signed paperback giveaway from Goodreads right now. Click below to enter!
Beasts and Savages
by Emma Woods
Giveaway ends November 01, 2015.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
Huntober Highlights ~ Charlotte Kent ~
Today’s author interview is a two for one! Why?
Because Charlotte Kent is the pseudonym used by Annie Acorn and Juliette Hill when writing their collaborative romantic contemporary women’s fiction/family saga series Captain’s Point Stories.
How exciting, right? Read on to find out what it’s like to be a team of authors!
Juliette Hill hails from Frederick, Maryland, and Annie Acorn lives close-by in Silver Spring, Maryland, so it seemed inevitable that their Captain’s Point Stories series, beginning with the full-length novel A Clue for Adrianna, would occur in the fictional small town of Captain’s Point, located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
How did you become a team of writers?
On January 10, 2013, Juliette Hill and I (Annie Acorn) were discussing how best to organize her efforts during the coming year – author and publisher, and I suggested she attempt a romance series.
In an effort to inspire her, I outlined the basis for a mystery series that I had carried around in my mind for over twenty years. The series was supposed to be set in a Victorian home in a Midwestern small town with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed heroine, and I thought the basic premise would work just as well for a romance series.
The minute I began writing, I knew we were in trouble, because Adrianna refused to be blonde and blue-eyed, demanding to be dark-haired and dark-eyed, was on her way to the eastern shore of Maryland, and had bonded with a fellow passenger on the plane, who Juliette and I knew nothing about. The house had morphed considerably and contained more characters we had not envisioned. In the end, we agreed it would be best if we merely went with the flow, since we could hardly do otherwise.
Where do you do most of your collaborating?
On the phone or at meetings either at Annie’s home or Clyde’s Tower Oaks Lodge in Rockville, Maryland – the latter location having served as the inspiration for Montgomery’s restaurant depicted in the Captain’s Point Stories series, along with its famous Cream of Crab soup.
When did you start writing together?
Juliette Hill and Annie Acorn met as members of a writers’ group in winter of 2011. Juliette has been involved as an author and Senior Editors ever since Annie Acorn Publishing LLC’s inception in May of 2011. Their collaboration as Charlotte Kent writing the Captain’s Point Stories series was initiated in January of 2013.
What’s the hardest part about working together?
Scheduling the time to both write and market the series, since we both pursue individual writing careers as well and are both involved in the day-to-day workings of Annie Acorn Publishing LLC.
Easiest?
Both of us have a genuine liking and respect for the other as both an individual and an author, and the fact we share similar ideas about romance writing and a love for the characters we have created doesn’t hurt either.
Do you write to background noise?
Juliette: I enjoy music in the background at times when I’m writing on Captain’s Point stories.
Annie: WETA’s Classical public radio runs as thread throughout my day and serves as an inspirational source, when I’m choosing piano and violin works for Chase Sheffield and Jack Jefferson to play within the pages of our Captain’s Point Stories series.
Do you scribble your ideas on paper? Outline? Is it different for each of you?
Juliette: I usually write my ideas regarding our Charlotte Kent Captain’s Point Stories series somewhere in my notebooks.
Annie: I keep a running Word.doc for each Captain’s Point Stories entry, be it a novel, novella or short story. As ideas come to me, I enter them at what seems to be a logical point amongst other notes on the appropriate .doc, color highlighting them to keep them separate from other notations, until they are incorporated in the final manuscript as it grows at the beginning of the .doc.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Juliette: I get inspiration from the water (ocean, bay, river…) or from memories of happy times spent on the Eastern Shore.
Annie: Most of my inspirations for the Captain’s Point Stories series have come from the characters themselves, especially the alpha males who frequently waken me at 2:00 a.m. to deliver full chapters of material that, in their world, can’t wait to be typed onto a page until a reasonable time later that day.
Who is your favorite character that you have created?
Juliette:
Female: Aunt Martha, because her presence is larger than life, even though she has no actual dialogue in the books, so far. We know her through the extemporaneous recollections of others, her actions/deeds as they relate to the town today, and through her will and other writings.
Male: Chase Sheffield, because he’s my ideal man. He’s the total package of brains, brawn, and humility, underneath a tough, professional exterior.
Annie:
Female: Adrianna Montgomery, because she’s lived in the real world, struggled during hard times, overcome obstacles, inherited wealth, and remained a ‘real’ person.
Male: Jack Jefferson, because he threw off a mentally abusive beginning, made a conscious decision to become better and not bitter, made a success of himself in not one, but three worlds, and still values the basics – love, friendship, family, and honor.
Couple: Jeff and Becca – there’s something about their flowering innocence set against the almost jet-set wealth that surrounds them that appeals to me and their pivotal novel – Love’s Epiphany (not yet published as it occurs further along in the series) is one of my favorites.
… Interesting. A favorite couple. I’ve never had that answer before, and I love it.
Juliette and Annie have several Latest Projects and Works in the Captain’s Point Series If you like any of the titles that are already released below, click on the title for more information, and how to get your own copy : )
Parisian Ghosts – appearing in Annie Acorn’s 2015 Spirited Tales and independently as itself
Love’s Second Chance – fifth full-length novel in the Captain’s Point Stories Series, not yet released
A Chester’s Christmas – a collection of novellas and novelettes, centering on Chester’s Crab Shack, designed to be read concurrently with the first six novels, includes: One Sweet Christmas (novelette), A Magic Cup of Christmas Tea (novella), Finally Home for Christmas (novella), and An Unexpected Christmas (short story).
Where can you find these great ladies, or keep up on the latest information on Charlotte Kent?
Twitter: @CharlotteKent20
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charlottekentcaptainspointseries?fref=ts
Website: http://annieacornpublishing.com/publications/captains-point-stories
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7053190.Charlotte_Kent
You may also contact the authors at charlottekentromances@gmail.com and/or follow them at @CharlotteKent20, @Annie_Acorn, and @JulietteHill1.
Just hearing about Charlotte Kent for the first time? Check out her other Books, Novellas and Stories:
Wicked Wednesday, Goodreads Giveaway, and Cats
Guess what?! Today is Wicked Wednesday!! What does that mean? That means for today you can get the eBook 
This flash sale is for today only, so grab it while you can. This kitty did!
Still not sure? Well, you can always enter try to win one of five signed copies of the paper back from the Goodreads Giveaway.
Fluffy enjoys free things… and winning 🙂
And now, while the rest of you are out in the world going
I’m reading, and celebrating because its my Saturday 🙂
Huntober Highlights ~ Lissa Bryan ~
Alright, ladies and gentlemen, another very exciting author interview is at your disposal! Today I’m featuring this great author:
Lissa Bryan… Reader, writer, and dreamer.
She is yet another lovely person I met at Ohioanna in April, is joining us while on her The End of All Things series tour, and was gracious enough to do an interview. YAY!
Location:
I live in Ohio, which is an absolutely beautiful state, a place of rolling hills, open skies, and quiet woods. I love exploring it and every time I travel, I find something new and interesting.
Do you have a favorite book/author?
I have so many favorites that I’d exhaust my computer’s memory trying to name them all. I’ll try to cut it down to a few.
Margaret George is my favorite historical fiction author (though it’s a close race with Colleen McCollough). She makes history live and breathe.
Stephen King is my favorite horror writer. I’m fascinated with the way he can create a character with just a few lines.
Emily Brontë is my favorite Victorian author. I love the way she can turn a simple phrase into a prose poem.
Magraret Atwood is my favorite dystopian/sic-fi author. I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale countless times, and I adore Oryx and Crake, especially since I read an article today that lab-grown meat is only six months away from market.
Catherine Anderson is my favorite romance author. I’m a sucker for a sweet love story. One of my author friends, Sydney Logan, writes a similar style. Don’t tell Catherine, but Sydney is close to taking over.
Where do you do most of your writing?
I have a home office that I share with my True Love. He plays video games on his computer while I type away on mine. Even though we’re both occupied with our own stuff, we’re still together. Our dogs curl up at our feet, and it’s quite a cozy arrangement. We’re building an office of my own in the attic, but I worry I’ll miss him (and I wonder if the dogs will choose to stay with him over me!)
When did you start writing?
In 2011 I finally started typing up and posting online some of the stories I had “written” in my head over the years. It was more or less on a whim. I din’t think anyone would ever read it, but I liked the idea of it floating around out there in cyberspace, maybe someday being found by a reader who would enjoy my crazy little tale. To my shock, it became popular, and that was sort of scary and intimidating at first, because I’m an intensely private person. A few months later, I heard from a publisher, who asked me if I’d ever considered writing a book. It took a lot of adjustment on my part, getting used to talking to readers and such, but I finally found a balance where I’m comfortable. My first novel came out in 2012. It’s been a crazy four years, and I can’t wait to see where the next four years takes me.
What’s your favorite type of writing to write? To read?
I like a good story, regardless of how it’s written. My favorite style is third person, past tense (it’s the one I always use when writing), but if it suits the needs of the story, I can enjoy first person or present tense, or whatever the author chose to use to tell it.
Do you write to background noise?
When I’m under a deadline and trying to write as quickly as possible, I listen to electronica dance music – stuff with a fast, driving beat and few lyrics to distract my mind. (Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, etc.)
Do you scribble your ideas on paper? outline?
The only time I scribble stuff down is at night – I keep a pad of paper by my bed because the most fertile moments for my imagination are in that thin line between wakefulness and sleep. And then I have to decide whether to wake up fully and roll over to write it down, or snuggle down into my warm pillow and drift off. The biggest lie I tell myself is, “I’ll remember that in the morning.” But writing it down doesn’t always help. It’s hard to decipher my own handwriting!
I’ve never outlined anything. I’m not sure if I could, honestly. I write the story in my head and then work on getting it typed up into manuscript form. But it never quite comes out as eloquently as it was in my mind. That was a point of intense frustration for me when I was writing Ghostwriter. Seth had such a beautiful, poetic turn of phrase, and I was never quite able to capture his voice with my clumsy words.
Where do you get your inspiration?
From everywhere! Books, movies, people I encounter on the street, random thoughts that flit through my mind. The question that always starts it all is, “What if…?” Some of them blossom into stories in my head. Most of them fall by the wayside, but some of them become full-fledged novels in my mind, and I keep mentally working on them until they’re “done.” It used to be, I’d tuck them away on a mental shelf and start thinking of a new story, but now I’m actually writing them out and sharing them with the world.
Who is your favorite character that you have created?
That’s a hard question. It’s like asking a mother her favorite child. I love them all for different reasons. I love Carly from The End of All Things for her optimism and tenacity. I love Seth from Ghostwriter for his wounded poet’s soul. I love Will from Under These Restless Skies, and my Anne Boleyn, too! It’s just impossible to say which one has my heart the most when they’re all part of it.
So, wanna know where you can score this great book? Well, she’s got a giveaway going. Enter here for your chance to win! Or you can head over to The Book Gardener and check out the entire giveaway package!
To connect with Lissa, click on the social media links below:
Bloggers Meet & Greet
What a wonderful meet and greet!
It’s mid October, Canadian Thanksgiving has passed and the American is approaching fast (well, yes it is kind of…). Down here in Australia we’ve been blessed with some amazing weather once more and in a true Aussie spirit it’s time to crank up the Barbie and put some shrimps on it!
No… not like that! More like this:
And while they are sizzling along I thought we can have a nice catch up! So let’s party blog style!
The rules are easy:
- Comment on this post and introduce your blog in a short sentence
- Put the link to your blog in your comment so people can check it out
- Put a link to a post in the comment that especially touched you (can be one of your posts but can also be a post of another blogger)
- Check out at least 3 of the other bloggers that have left a…
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Meet and Greet Birthday Extravaganza!!
Huntober Highlights ~ Mellissa Green ~
Today’s features author is Mellissa Green from Detroit, Michigan. She has published book reviews in Mysterical-e and Bewildering Stories, and is the founder of A Blue Green Universe, a startup company for authors, and the blind. As a blind and hearing impaired computer user, she uses Jaws for Windows, a screen reader that reads the screen to her.
Do you have a favorite book/author?
Charlote’s Web
Where do you do most of your writing?
Bedroom
When did you start writing?
I’ve always written.
What’s your favorite type of writing to write? To read?
I love to read genre fiction, and am writing genre fiction.
Do you write to background noise?
No.
Do you scribble your ideas on paper? outline?
I outline my work.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Movies and books, also brainstorming.
Who is your favorite character that you have created?
I don’t have a favorite character.
Thank you Mellissa!
If you’d like to know more about Mellissa Green, and her work, you can find her at her website link:
Or on twitter:
@abluegreenunivs
Words from Emma Woods 