Hello, Everyone! Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. I’ve been busy with family, writing, and moving! But here’s a great article I read today–I think you’ll like it, too!
Source: Quitting Social Media
Category: Author Interviews
Confessions of Motherhood; Interview with Laura Diamond
Inspiration from Indie Author, Laura Diamond
There was a day in my past when I truly believed that I needed to know how to do everything. And then I became a mom. I realized I knew nothing.
Nadda.
No thing.
I wish I had read Deliver Me: Confessions of Motherhood, a compilation of essays edited by Laura Diamond. Mothers are a species unto their own. Stories of labor and delivery are bonds of friendships – those personal battlefields of brining forth life when we struggle against the pain to receive the joy of motherhood. And the pain doesn’t stop there… as I’m typing this, there is a four-year-old loudly singing as he rifles through the box of Legos for just the right piece. In the background, my three daughters are all practicing their instruments. And now the dog is barking. As much as I would like to run screaming from the house, I also know…
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A Mission, A Dream, and a Cat – Meet Virginia Ripple
Meet Virginia Ripple, Next-up in Pay-it-forward Author Interview Series
Over the last several months, and for months to come, I’ve been interviewing authors who have self-published their work or have published through small publishing houses. From each, I’m amazed by the mission behind each book and the hopes of the author to share a theme. I have learned something valuable from each – and the trend continues this week with Virginia Ripple.
If you are a fan of fantasy and also appreciate authors who include their faith, then Virginia’s books are certainly for you!
1. In your biography on your website, you shared something that really struck home – While working part-time as a Religious Education Director and writing the other half “the teeter totter of passions unbalanced” your life and you found yourself writing less. Many people reading this will find encouragement that they are not alone in feeling frustrated with not having enough time to write. What…
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Write to Empower – An Interview with Author Nikki Rosen
Meet Nikki Rosen–Next-up in the Pay-It-Forward Author Interview Series
When I first started the Pay-It-Forward Author Interview Series, I knew I would meet all types of writers from all over the country and the world. I’ve been amazed by the stories they write, their candid honesty about the writing process, and their willingness to share secrets of their craft with others. How often in other businesses do you find people in the same business so willing to help one another? The ‘secret sauce’ and the ‘family recipe’ are well guarded to keep that something special an exclusive right.
Not so with stories.
I am amazed by the writers who have come to share their work – and now I am humbled by Nikki Rosen, author of In the Eye of Deception: A True Story, Dancing Softly, Twisted Innocence, and No Hope? Know Hope: A Healing Journey.
Nikki has won awards for her writing, and rightly so. Her story…
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Something Stinks! Interview with Gail Hedrick
Meet Children’s Book Author, Gail Hedrick . . .
If there was anyone who even deserved a gold star for being patient with me, it is Gail Hedrick. Life as a homeschooler, despite all my careful planning, side-swiped me two weeks ago and I was late in sending these questions to her. Gail, again my apologies. Thank you for your gracious patience 🙂
Not only is Gail a sweetheart, she is an award-winning author. Her book, Something Stinks!, was brand new in our house a few weeks ago and is now a little tattered looking as my three daughters have been reading it – and loving it! It is my great pleasure to introduce you to Gail Hedrick!
[applause]
Gail Hedrick
I’ve spent quite a bit of time admiring your website. Did you put this together or did you go through a service?
Gosh, thanks! I was a total infant in the website process, but luckily knew how to ask…
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Welcome to #mywritingprocess blog tour, children’s books edition!
So happy to be part of the #mywritingprocess blog tour! It’s a fun way to meet new authors and hear their stories. All lives are full of twists and turns, but the writing life…? Sometimes it feels like one big circle. So buckle in, mates—my writing process may get your head spinning!
Acknowledgement
Many thanks to Christy Lynn Allen, fellow indie-writer and author of the Samantha Green Mystery Series (http://samanthagreenmysteries.com/about/the-author). Christy and I first met during a 2012 interview about e-publishing by columnist Susie Wilde in Durham, NC’s Herald Sun.
You can read Christy’s #mywritingprocess blog post at http://samanthagreenmysteries.com/blog/posts/my-writing-process.
What are you working on?
Right now I’m working on a picture book called Yogabets: An Acrobatic Alphabet.
It’s a really fun little book that imagines the alphabet as a series of ideograms or symbols that represent objects or ideas. After I introduce each letter with a phrase describing what the letter looks like, I provide an interpretive drawing.
Yogabets is also a poem and a bedtime-story—so there’s a lot going on!
How does your work differ from others of its genre?
Well, that’s an interesting question, because I do lots of different types of work. My first project was a middle grade novel called Stella Bellarosa: Tales of an Aspiring Teenage Superhero.
It’s set in New York City in the 1960’s and centers on the lives of two thirteen-year-old girls who get suspended for stealing a substitute teacher’s wallet. It’s different from other middle grade novels in that it’s a humorous-cum-historical novel with a multicultural theme—the main characters are a second-generation Italian-American teenager and a recent Chinese émigré.
I’ve also written and illustrated two picture books. One is about a little girl—Isabel Plum: Ichthyologist—who’s used to getting her way, but is about to get the surprise of a lifetime.
Unfortunately, she’s not too pleased with the surprise. My other picture book—Tip & Oliver: BFFs is about an old dog whose owners adopt a young pet to cheer him up.
Things don’t turn out as planned, though, because Tip sees Oliver as an interloper rather than as a friend.
So I guess you could say what makes my books different from others is that they set stereotypes on their heads—which makes for some funny as well as heartbreaking stories. And that’s a bit genre-busting in itself!
Why do I write what I do?
Boy, that’s a really good question and one that piggybacks well on the one above.
I think all writing stems from the writer’s experience, which sounds cliché. But as I’ve indicated above, although I write for children, there’s something subversive about my work. I’m not writing about the traditionally successful, well-adjusted child. I’m writing about the Boo Radleys and the Holden Caulfields of the world—good kids who are trying to figure things out but aren’t quite there yet. Kids who make mistakes, who dream big but whose dreams don’t quite sync up with reality. Stella is like that. She wants to save the world, but, as her father points out, she can’t even get out of bed on time. Isabel Plum’s another. She wants the one thing in life she can’t have—a puppy (because she’s allergic). And poor, old Tip just wants to be loved—and doesn’t realize that he is just that—loved, well-loved—until the end of the story.
How does your writing process work?
Boy, these questions keep getting harder. I’ve tried all different types of writing processes. After reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, for instance, I started keeping a journal and writing what she calls ‘morning notes.’ This is a really good method for finding out what’s on your mind when you’re not quite sure what to write, because it extracts ideas, events, situations from your subconscious. The idea is you put pen to paper before you’re fully awake and just write without stopping to cross your t’s or dot your i’s—and definitely, definitely, without editing what you write.
I did this a lot when I first started to write, and eventually amassed a ton of raw material, some of which I went back and shaped into picture books or novels or poems. I still do this, though right now I’m so busy polishing up the stuff I’ve written over the last ten years, I’m not sure when I’ll have time to generate fresh material. I hope I do, though, for sure. Maybe after I publish my next book. Unfortunately, self-publishing, as many others have noted, is a time-consuming process, which complicates things even more. But it’s fun. And it’s rewarding. And it’s a step toward getting your material out in the world.
More information about Julie can be found at http://www.amazon.com/Julie Krantz/e/B00996YNZ4/
#mywritingprocess blog tour update…
Next up—writer Lisa Otter Rose, author of You’ve Got Verve, Jamie Ireland!
Lisa is a writer and visual journalist. She appreciates how creativity, determination, and courage play key roles in every child’s development. Like Jamie, Lisa and her children have learning disabilities. She has experienced firsthand the frustration that undiagnosed learning disorders bring, and then the relief that proper diagnosis and intervention offer. Lisa, who has always loved books and knows the power of story, has crafted a funny and realistic character, Jamie Ireland, who defies any label.
Check out Lisa’s blog at http://lisaotterrose.com/2014/05/12/my-writing-process/
Meet Aviva Gittle, Self-Pub Author with a Mission!
New children’s author interview–enjoy!
The world is full of writers, from devoted list-makers to poets and short stories to novels and beyond. For as many writers there are, it’s not too far fetched to claim that there are as many purposes behind the writing. Personally speaking, I write because it helps me organize my thoughts…I just happen to think in a story format.
Once the decision is made to take writing from sketching little stories and poems for our own enjoyment to the next level – that elusive publication. With Self publishing making waves in the industry, these stories are sometimes mistaken (sometimes not) as lesser in quality. As such, self-published authors have come together as a community in several different formats and in online forums. Aviva Gittle is one such author with a heart for helping other self-published authors.
Aviva is my next featured author. Along with amazing stories for children, Aviva has…
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Meet Julie Krantz – a Teenage Superhero Mastermind!
If you want to learn more about yours truly, please read Jessica Schaub’s interview!
There is something incredible about writing a book. Not only do I spend time reading and researching, writing and rewriting, there is the moment when the book is finished and I expect a ticker-tape parade. Every time I’ve finished a manuscript, there has been no trumpet blare, no pat on the back, and I am always alone. Writing is a solitary activity – for the most part.
That’s why I’m enjoying these interviews so much! I can offer a virtual celebration of work well done, an Internet pat on the back, and we can come together, however briefly, as members of the writing world.
I’m thrilled to introduce you to Julie Krantz, fellow writer, mother of four, and author of several books geared toward our world’s youth. I feel like I’ve meet a kindred sprit! We have much in common. Julie shares her story, her writing, and her experiences with…
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Emmy Gatrell–Mother with a Heart for Writing
Love Indie Author interviews–hope you do, too!
Welcome to the second installment of the Pay-It-Forward Author Interview series! If you are an author or have a book being released in the next year and would like to join this interview series, click here for details.
This week I am featuring a fellow homeschooling mom and writer. Emmy Gatrell took the plunge and published her first book on her own – a feat that has brought in 4 & 5 star ratings on Amazon.
If you are a fan of fantasy, love secrets and new discoveries, the Meanmna is the book for you. Read on to learn more about Emmy Gatrell and then give her book a try.
Meanmna is a fantasy novel for teens. What are some other authors who inspired you to write in this genre?
I could easily name a hundred authors that inspired me to write in the fantasy genre. I tend to read…
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Meet the Author: Theresa Jenner Garrido
Hi, Everyone–Hope you have time to check out this interview with up-and-coming indie author, Theresa Jenner Garrido. Thanks!
Many people enter into retirement with the dream of writing a novel. Theresa Jenner Garrido made that a reality. Whether you love romance novels or light mysteries, Theresa is your gal! With more than a dozen published books, she knows how to tell a good story. Theresa and I were both published by Martin Sister’s Publishing in 2013, so we share that sisterhood as well. I read Who Done It? and enjoyed the story line, but I fell in love with the characters; especially Ducky, a plucky 80-year-old. Allow me to introduce you to:
Author: Who Done It?, The Chinese Chest, By Any Other Name, and more
According to your website, you lived on an island in your youth. That’s an incredibly unique experience. Can you share a specific memory or two? In what way, if any, did that environment contribute to your story…
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Julie Krantz 