DISCLAIMER: This content has been provided to INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS by Roger Charlie. No compensation was received. This information required by the Federal Trade Commission.
ABOUT THE BOOK
As the epic Weir Chronicles continue in this third installment of the series, rebels poison Ian and it’s up to Rayne and Patrick to find a cure before their friend succumbs and Earth’s fate is left in the hands of adversaries intent on taking control of the planet. To obtain answers, Rayne must travel to
an alternate world where few survive as Patrick unearths the secrets of the rebels and discovers a truth that shatters his beliefs about the Weir and the future of Earth.
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
What initially got you interested in writing?
For me it was two-fold. A creative outlet, and a way to express my feelings and emotions, when I was a teenager. Ironically, I never kept a diary or journal like so many of my friends. It was terrified to reveal myself in such a raw and vulnerable way, even if no one saw it but me. It was easier to use characters and plots in fantasy or science fiction worlds to express, and have the guts to say, what I never felt comfortable doing.
How did you decide to make the move into becoming a published author?
In spite of the positive feedback I received from my creative writing professor and my writer’s critique group, I continued to lack confidence in my work. I entered my first novel, FADE TO BLACK, in the Colorado Gold Writing contest through the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I was looking for their valued, detailed feedback and because I needed the experience of writing summaries for my novels. I placed as one of five finalists out of hundreds of entries in my category! That was the pivotal turning point and showed me that if I worked hard enough, I could go all the way.
What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?
Escape. Excitement. The joy of reading. An urge to keep turning the page even though you really need to get to bed. That is what I love about reading great books. Getting lost in unique worlds, falling in love with characters, caring about them. Most of all, forgetting about your troubles and woes, even if it’s just for a few pages at a time.
At the heart of my series, I draw back the curtain on the power we have over others and wielding it responsibly, whether it’s to protect the planet or to treat others with kindness and respect.
What do you find most rewarding about writing?
The control over my characters and worlds that I don’t have in life. I am a prime example that when you are surrounded by darkness, you should turn your face to the heavens and reach for the stars. My stories and novels are my stars. They are better than therapy.
What do you find most challenging about writing?
Staying fresh and unique in your worlds and with creating your characters. There are millions, perhaps by now billions, of books out there in the world. Keeping yours unique can be quite the challenge.
What advice would you give to people wanting to enter the field?
Write what you love and what you know. Don’t try to copy the latest fad or what’s popular. It’ll be on to the next thing by the time you’re ready to publish. Also, get expert advice and be open to criticism. If you want to improve your work, you first need to improve yourself as a writer.
Is there anything else besides writing you think people would find interesting about you?
I love to cook and putter around in my garden. In fact, I have a fun blog on my website, A Cook’s Guide to Writing. I equate creating things in the kitchen to developing a story or novel with simple analogies. Check it out!
What are the best ways to connect with you, or find out more about your work?
Catch up with me and my work on my website. www.sueduff.com While there, make sure you sign up for my quarterly newsletter to get the latest news about the series and more!
Sue Duff has dreamed of dragons and spaceships before she could even read, so it’s only natural that she now combines both fantasy and science fiction as her favorite genre. Having written since high school, Duff never took it seriously until a skiing accident laid her up for an entire summer and she turned on the word processor to combat the boredom. A couple years later, her first urban fantasy novel, Fade to Black , was one of five finalists in the
RMFW Colorado Gold Writing Contest and in 2015, Duff’s writing earned her the PEN Award.
She is the second oldest of six girls with an avid reader mom and her dad, the family’s single drop of testosterone in a sea of estrogen.
By day, Duff is a dedicated speech-language therapist at an inner city school district, a career she pursued much in part to her aunt who got her hooked on stories of the profession when Duff was younger. She is passionate about the work she does and regularly works to help those students that need it the most.
Sue is a member of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and T he Pikes Peak Writers. She calls Colorado home and when not saving the world one page at a time, she can be found walking her great dane, getting her hands dirty in her garden, or creating something delicious in her kitchen.
Check out her blog, A Cook’s Guide to Writing and other musings on her website.
Publisher: Elyse Douglas (September 15, 2015)
Category: Contemporary Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Holiday Romance, Christmas novel
Tour Date: Oct & Nov, 2015
ASIN: B0141RDSCE
Available in: ebook, 183 Pages
A First Love. A Second Chance.
A young widow travels to New York on business a few days before Christmas. She has reluctantly made a date with a lover she hasn’t seen in 20 years, and she is nervous and apprehensive. Twenty years before, she made a difficult decision that has both troubled and haunted her ever since. She knows she’s about to come face-to-face with her past and she’s hoping for some redemption and resolution. She also wonders if she can somehow pick up where she left off 20 years ago and start again.
An exciting chance encounter changes everything. Now, not only will she face the past with hope to rekindle an old romance, but there is the possibility that this chance meeting will bring her love and happiness she never thought possible.
Once again, she will have to choose. She will have to make the right decision. She will have to believe that Christmas miracles can still happen.
Interview with the Author:
What initially got you interested in writing?
Reading! Always wanting to share a story that was bouncing around in my head. Then came the thrill of exploring emotions, words and characters and taking a journey of discovery.
How did you decide to make the move into being a published author?
Although Doug and I had literary agents when we first began, and our novels were submitted to several publishing houses, we found the process slow, confusing and long. Once the opportunities for digital publishing became available, being the independent types that we are, we decided to go the Indy route. We like having control over the writing, the book cover, the marketing and the publishing timeframe. We like the challenge of doing it all.
What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?
First and foremost we want readers to be entertained and uplifted.
What do you find most rewarding about writing?
Exploring themes, characters and story, and connecting with readers.
What do you find most challenging about writing?
To face the blank page every day, and to write down and express, authentically, the feelings, emotions and ideas that live in your head, so that the reader can inhabit that world and be entertained, surprised and uplifted.
What advice would you give to people who want to enter the field? There is no magical formula for being a writer. As in every other field, if you want to do it, you study, practice, learn and do it. Writing can be hard, frustrating and challenging work. It can also be thrilling, enlightening and magical.
If you feel the call to be a writer, then write—preferable 6 days a week. Allow yourself the freedom to explore and take chances. Find a genre or a style that you love and just go for it. Enjoy the ride, for as Ralph Waldo Emerson said about life (paraphrasing) It’s more about the journey than the destination.
“The Christmas Diary is a tender hearted story of one woman’s journey of self-discovery and finding true love that will pull at your emotional heartstrings. The authors weave an inspirational tale written in the third person narrative, that draws the reader into Alice and Jack’s lives, and the issues that they’ve faced: love and loss, questioning one’s life choices, and the decision of which road/path is best to take in one’s life.
This is a wonderful story that has a meaningful message within the storyline that will touch your heart. The authors’ descriptive writing style is phenomenal: the characters are realistic and down-to-earth people whose emotions, dialogue and interactions are palpable, you can feel the range of highs and lows that they endure. The reader is transported to the picturesque holiday setting of the Pennsylvania towns of Eden Grove and Meadow Green.
This captivating story has a mixture of mystery, tender romance, and a supernatural twist that makes The Christmas Diary a compelling and entertaining story that will warm your heart.”- Kathleen, Jersey Girl Book Review
“If you are a fan of Richard Paul Evans novels then you definitely want to grab The Christmas Diary. This is a super quick read that you pick up on a Saturday afternoon and devour in one sitting. One glorious afternoon sitting.
It is a story of love and changes with a paranormal twist.
I adored this book. It was quick and simple and really perfect. I loved how everything was tied together through a ghost.
A quick holiday read that makes me think of Lifetime and Hallmark channel movies.”- Andrea Guy, A Chick Who Reads
” The Christmas Diary” is a nice smooth read filled with emotions and a touch of the paranormal world. Elyse pens her characters well developed, believable and lovable in this Christmas romance story. Highly recommended for all who love a nice enjoyable romance tale.”- Susan Peck, My Cozie Corner
About Elyse Douglas:
Elyse Douglas is the pen name for the husband and wife writing team of Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington. Elyse’s mother was a painter and her father a textile consultant. Elyse began writing poems and short stories at an early age, and graduated with a degree in English Literature. Douglas grew up in a family of musicians, astrologers and avid readers. His great grandfather lived to be a 134 years old, and was the oldest man in the world when he died in 1922.
Some of Elyse Douglas’ novels include: The Other Side of Summer, Christmas for Juliet, Wanting Rita, The Christmas Diary,The Christmas Bridge and The Summer Diary. They live in New York City.
DISCLAIMER: The following has been provided to INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS by the author. No compensation has been received for this content. This disclaimer provided by requirement of the Federal Trade Commission.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born and bred in Panama City, Florida, on the beautiful waters of the Gulf of Mexico in the Florida Panhandle. My grandfather, Wyatt Oates Byrd, moved to Panama City in 1930 to open a Nehi Bottling Company. I graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama, am a former elementary school teacher and was a stay-at-home mom for my children, Tommy Jr and Elizabeth. My husband, Tommy, and I still reside in Panama City.
What was your favorite part of the writing process?
Being raised by a Southern father and grandmother of uncommon wit, humor flowed as freely as water from a faucet in our household. When I finally put pen to paper, the stories poured forth as though an age-old tap had been discovered and turned on. I loved the gush of warm and euphoric remembrances and seeing these memories transposed into the written word.
What are you currently reading?
The End of Innocence by Allegra Jordan. It is a wonderful love story of two Harvard students who fall in love on the eve of World War I and face a world at war on opposing sides. At a recent trade show, I was on a war panel with Allegra. She is a delight and the book is brilliant. Now, why a Southern humorist and self-proclaimed Southern belle like myself was on a WAR panel is another story!
How many books do you normally read at a time?
I only read one book at a time from beginning to end and I read for details. I want it all! Once I start a good book, I am lost to the world. When my children were young, I did not dare start a book until they went to bed or they might end up playing in traffic!
Your new book, SAVE MY PLACE, is so very different from your first book, MISS HILDRETH WORE BROWN. How did this story begin to germinate?
My first book was what I like to call ‘real life’ fiction—things that really happened—but I embellished them with anecdotes. With this first novel, Save My Place, I started with the main character, who actually began talking to me and telling me about her life. Eventually, I had to get her story on paper, and that’s when I got up in the middle of the night and wrote about her first, with a lot of character development.
I don’t believe writers are ever sure as to how things actually come about in a story. The college and teaching experiences contain some true stories, but with the introduction of Kincaid, it definitely becomes completely fiction.
In SAVE MY PLACE you wrote, very convincingly, about “Old Panama City Beach”, which is where you are from, and the Vietnam era. Did you write from personal experience?
Panama City Beach is definitely part of my history. We used to have house parties here, and my descriptions of the motels were spot on, because those experiences were really true.
Vietnam was very pivotal for me when I was in college. The draft was unsettling for everyone, but men were able to get deferments in some cases. Even though I lived through the war, I did a great deal of research, because the timeline was very important. I researched battles and interviewed someone who served, twice, in Vietnam. I also talked to a West Point graduate, because it’s the little details that made the story more true to life.
Along those same lines, in SAVE MY PLACE the experience of losing a child to leukemia was very sad, but eventually brought your characters to a deeper faith. What was your motivation with this part of the story line?
A friend had a portrait of her daughter, who had died, and she talked so beautifully, and handled it with such grace, I never forget her, her story, and how she handled it. Before I included this part in the book, I found my friend on the Internet; we renewed our friendship; and, she gave me permission to use her experience. I also interviewed a physician from M.D. Anderson who was able to share the appropriate protocols, and walked me through what would have been done in the 70s.
And, yes, the experience was what turned Kincaid to God. I wanted to impart that it was a child who brought him to seek God and an understanding of faith.
There was also an extremely poignant chapter about a teacher. Is that part of your history as well, or did you pick it out of the headlines?
Having the character shave her head was complete fiction. However, I did teach school for seven years, and actually made the dress I mentioned and had the kids decorate it. We did make the newspaper!
Why the nom de plume?
I didn’t make it up, because it’s my actual maiden name, and was too good to waste! I really liked what Melinda Rainey Thompson, author of SWAG: SOUTHERN WOMEN AGING GRACEFULLY said about the name: ‘The first thing I liked about SAVE MY PLACE was the author’s name: Olivia deBelle Byrd. If you can’t make it as a writer in the South with a name like that, well, you’re not really trying, are you?’
DISCLAIMER: The following has been provided to INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS by the author. No compensation has been received for this content. This disclaimer provided by requirement of the Federal Trade Commission.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Eleven Tales steeped in Blood and reeking of Sulphur
J.G Clay takes you on a journey through the voids of Reality and into dark places where demons, mutants and inter-dimensional creatures taunt, taint and corrupt Humanity. Survival is not guaranteed, sanity is not assured and death lurks in every corner. These are the Tales of Blood and Sulphur: Apocalypse Minor; eleven twisted tales of terror and mayhem……
There are cracks in the skin of Reality. Some are microscopic, others are as wide as a four-lane motorway. As the fault lines increase and widen, the door to our world shines like a beacon in the darkness, a warm and inviting sight to others beyond our understanding. When They cross over into our realm, The Tales begin……
A gambler taking one last desperate throw of the dice. A struggling writer making an unholy alliance. An eternal being fighting to stay alive in the financial capital of India. A man burdened with a terrible town secret. The Law Enforcers who must never cry. The End of Days live and direct from the rural heartland of England.
The blood is warm, the sulphur is burning, the tales will be told, the Apocalypse Minor is imminent!
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR What initially got you interested in writing?
I’ve always been interested in writing ever since I was a child. In English classes, I used to pen my own ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Blakes 7’ adaptions. Once I
discovered horror through some older uncles my path to the Dark Side was pretty well set. I wrote for my amusement and to try and emulate what peope like Clive Barker, Stephen King and James Herbert were doing. Eventualy, I found my own voice. How did you decide to make the move into being a published author?
I just took the plunge. Being a published author had been on my mind for some time, but a combination of fear and life in general just got in the way. A couple
of years ago, I just thought ‘what the hell, let’s go for it’ and self published the original ‘Tales of Blood and Sulphur’. It was a case of ‘if I don’t do it now, I never will’, so I just did it.
What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?
A few more fears than they already had, I hope. I want the reader to feel the way I normally do after reading a particularly good book or watching a great film –
a combination of fear, wonder, a little and asking how did he think that up?’
What do you find most rewarding about writing?
Sculpting out believable characters, then putting them in an unbelievable situation and watching how they react. Quite often, the characters surprise me. That’s the fun of it.
What do you find most challenging about writing?
Ending the story. Each of the ‘Tales of Blood and Sulphur’ have about four different endings. I go with the with one that fells best by the editing stage. Even
then, I’m not a hundred per cent sure of what I’ve done-
whether it was the right ending or not. I’ll leave that one up to the readers.
What advice would you give to people want to enter the field?
Read lots, write lots and grow the hide of a rhino. Bein an author these days requires a thick skin. It’s not for the faint hearted. What ways can readers connect with you?
Readers can get me on social media on the following links:
I also have a website which is being updated at the time of writing but should be up and running shortly – http://jgclayhorrorauthor.com/
Please feel free to pop along and say hello. I always respond and it’s always good to chat the readers. Plus, despite what you may have heard about horror
authors, I don’t bite. Most of the time, anyway.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.G Clay is definitely a Man of Horror. There can be no doubt. Putting aside the reverence he has for the horror greats, such as King, Barker, Herbert, Carpenter, Romero and Argento, there is another fact that defines his claim for the title of the ‘Duke of Spook’. He was born on Halloween night. By a quirk fate, it was also a full moon that night. Co-incidence?
Here at Clay Towers, we don’t believe in coincidences.
The 41 year old hails from the Midlands in the United Kingdom, is married with one step child and two dogs that bear a strong resemblance to Ewoks. Beyond the page and the written word, he is music mad and can hold down a tune on a bass guitar pretty well. He is an avid reader and also has an enduring love of British sci-fi, from the pages of the ‘2000A.D’ comic to the televised wanderings of Gallifrey’s most famous physician. Clay is also a long-time fan of the mighty Birmingham City Football Club and endures a lot of flak from his friends for it.
DISCLAIMER: The following has been provided to INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS by Virtual Author Book Tours, including interview questions exclusive to INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS. No compensation has been received for this content. This disclaimer provided by the requirements of the Federal Trade Commission.
Publisher: Central Recovery Press (July 15, 2014)
Category: Non-fiction, Memoir, Substance Abuse, Codependency
ISBN: 978-1-937612-64-1
Tour Date: June/July, 2015
Available in: Print & ebook, 224 Pages
The dynamics of codependency are illuminated in this heartbreaking story of a marriage comprised by a husband’s addiction to alcohol.
Through the eyes of love clouded by denial, Fran saw the danger signs but ignored them. Her husband, Terry, was accomplished, romantic, and good-natured. A newly divorced single parent, Fran was ready for love. She recounts the joys and sorrows of their relationship, including Terry’s attempts to control his drinking, her attempts to control him, his death, and her subsequent recovery.
Interview with Fran Simone:
What initially got you interested in writing?
I read a lot when I was a child and dreamed of becoming a writer but that dream seemed unattainable coming from a working class family. Not that my parents weren’t loving and supportive, but they wanted me to have a secure and good paying job. Also I went to Catholic schools back in the day when girls were encouraged to become teachers, nurses or nuns.
How did you decide to make the move into becoming a published author?
As I said I was always an avid reading so I majored in English in college and then went to graduate school where I obtained a doctorate. At the university I directed a statewide writing project and also taught writing classes. About midway through my career I decided to have a go myself.
What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?
People can overcome tragedy and move beyond it. .I want my readers to take away hope that one day they will lead happy and fulfilling lives despite what challenges they face.
What do you find most rewarding about writing?
Filling a blank page with words even though you don’t know where you’re going and discovering things as you go along.
What do you find most challenging about writing?
Finding just the right words to convey my thoughts and ideas.
What advice would you give to people wanting to enter the field?
Read widely as much as you can.
Is there anything else besides writing you think people would find interestingabout you?
Last year, my eye doctor invited a group of us to accompany him on a mission trip to the Chiapas region of Mexico. We spent a week examining eyes, writing prescriptions, fitting patients for eyeglasses and the docs did surgery mainly for cataracts. Hundreds of people travelled to a small village in the mountains for treatment that they otherwise would have never received. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
What are the best ways to connect with you, or find out more about your work?
Visit my website darkwinewaters@gmail.com or email darkwinewaters@gmail.com; ; I write a blog for the loved ones of family members with substance abuse disorders for Psychology Today under the Addiction category.
Excerpt from ‘Dark Wine Waters’ by Fran Simone:
Several weeks after we returned to Charleston, I received a postcard in a familiar handwriting–Terry- from Bellagio, Italy. The inscription read: “This is paradise. Aren’t we having a good time? Love, T.”
We almost didn’t end up at Bellagio. From Menton we drove along the coast to San Remo where terraced fields of roses, carnations, and camellias filled the hillsides. Our bliss, however, was temporarily punctured in Genoa. I don’t recall exactly what happened. Perhaps I made some remark about his drinking, but I do remember how we sat on opposite ends of an empty tour bus, pouting like three-year-olds.
Later that day, we declared a truce as we packed the Renault and headed toward Lake Como.
“Frannie, it’s been a long day. I’m tired. Why don’t we stop in the town of Como and spend the night?”
“I really want to get to Bellagio today. I read a description in the AAA guide: It’s a town on the peninsula that divides the two sides of Lake Como. Outstanding hotels and restaurants. Plenty to see. So what do you think?”
“The guidebook says about 27 kilometers. What’s that in miles? I always get confused.”
“It’s about fifteen. But no telling how long it’ll take on these roads. They’re like back home. And you aren’t a very good navigator.”
“I’ll do the best I can. I promise. It’ll be worth it. You’ll see.” I hoped my enthusiasm for the town would rub off on Terry, and that the AAA guide wasn’t exaggerating.
As the Renault chugged up a narrow, winding road with hazardous switch backs, Terry looked straight ahead and gripped the steering wheel. We almost wrecked when an Italian driver in a red sports car blew his horn to signal a blind curve a second before the car shot through a hairpin turn.
“Basta. Italian drivers. Goddamn. Unbelievable.”
Late afternoon, our driving nerves were soothed, as we settled into an elegant room at the Hotel Florence where we were mesmerized by our view of the lakefront. All reluctance and annoyance forgotten and swallowed up in the view from our windows.
Our guidebook recommended visits to The Basilica of San Giacomo, the gardens of the Serbelloni Villa, the chapel at Villa Melzi and other “must see” sites. We wound up and down steep stone steps past iron balconies festooned with clay pots of red geraniums or laundry drying under hot sun. At the many shops tucked below apartments, we admired fine silks and Venetian glass jewelry. I purchased a tee shirt for Matt and silk scarves for Terry’s mother and aunt.
We drank wine at a café on the lake and sampled food cooked in heaven: lake trout, perch, fluffy risotto, and ripe white peaches. Our love making become another delish dish to savor, and savor we did.
Like the excursion boats slowly crisscrossing the surface of the lake, we floated in a perfect dream. In my journal I wrote: “I’m totally happy.”
So was the composer Franz Liszt. In 1837, while cavorting with the Countess d’Agoult, he wrote, “When you write the story of two happy lovers, set them on the shores of Lake Como. I know of no other spot more obviously blessed by heaven.”
Bellagio soared to the top of my most favorite list. Numero uno to this day.
Years later, on my fiftieth birthday, Terry surprised me with a savings passbook marked “Italy”. He recorded the sum of $400.00 in the top column. My birthday card read: “This is a down payment for a return trip to Bellagio. Love, Terry.”
“I figure if we put away a hundred or so each month, we can swing a return trip in about a year. That’s if you can control your spending. Can you manage to limit your shopping for clothes and household doodads?” Terry asked.
“Of course. For a return trip to paradise, I’ll try, really try.”
But I continued to spend.
He continued to drink.
Praise for Dark Wine Waters’ by Fran Simone:
“Dark Wine Waters goes way beyond the plethora of recovery books. It is a beautifully written memoir, with its charming water motif throughout, and it so clearly offers everyone a way to continue, to be happy, despite whatever happens. In this, the author has handed all of us a true gift.”-Cat Pleska, president of Mountain State Press and author, Riding on Comets (forthcoming, April, 2015)
“Brutally frank and fearless in its honesty, Fran Simone’s book is a gift for those who love or have loved alcoholics or addicts. She tells the story of how she jumped into a relationship with a man she never imagined would have the disease of alcoholism. She simply had no reference for such an illness and missed all the clues. Once in love and married, she struggled to keep their life together, admitting she made every mistake possible.
This book boldly explains how alcoholism seduces and corrupts the most innocent of people, both the drinker and the ones who love them. Nicely written and well crafted, Simone’s memoir will appeal to those who enjoy a human interest and love story. But more importantly, it is for those caught in the darkness of loving someone with this disease and how they can find joy and hope and a better way to live through recovery.”- L. Farwell, Amazon Reviewer
“Fran Simone has written an intimate, deeply honest, and absorbing memoir that clearly shows the four stages of alcoholism through the years of her marriage to Terry. When she begins writing their story and the narrative starts to take shape, she finds “the courage to admit my faults, face my fears, and forgive my husband and myself.” Her honesty is compelling.
I particularly like the way the author organizes her story, dividing the book into four parts, each opening with an epigraph of the disease stage. Part 1, for example, opens with “The addict has a ‘wow’ experience and begins to form a relationship with the drug. Family members may observe subtle changes in personality, and a formidable barrier to communication appears: denial.” I leave the rest for you to read.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a very well told narrative that intimately shares the lives of two very human people ensnared in the full throes of the disease of alcoholism.”-Mary Jo Doig, Story Circle Book Reviews
“I was absorbed in this book from the very first page. The author takes us on her journey through life with an alcoholic from the moment she falls in love with him through the inevitable sad conclusion, yet gives those of us in this struggle hope for recovery.
This book is written with the honesty that can only come from the experience of living those highs and lows. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, whether you are just looking for an engagingly candid memoir or you are looking for clues to learn to cope when and if you’ve found yourself in a similar situation.”- Peggy E. Gunter, Amazom Reviewer
About Fran Simone:
Fran Simone, Ph.D. is a Professor Emeritus from Marshall University in West Virginia. She is the former director of the WV Writing Project, a statewide affiliate of the National Writing Project, University of California at Berkeley. Her doctorate is from Duke University.
Her essays have appeared in The Voice and The Quarterly of the National Writing Project, the Charleston Gazette, Story Circle Network journal and anthology. Her blog posts have appeared online in Hazelden/Betty Ford. She is a regular contributor to The Addiction Blog and to the Psychology Today blog. She is a member of Story Circle Network, the National Association of Memoir Writers and West Virginia Writers, Inc. She conducts workshops on writing and speaks on addiction and recovery.
Honors: Featured author of the month, National Memoir Association, January, 2015.
DISCLAIMER: The following has been provided to INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS by the author. No compensation has been received for this content. This disclaimer provided by requirement of the Federal Trade Commission.
ABOUT THE BOOK
When the Angels attack, there’s NO REST FOR THE WICKED.
Father Montgomery, an elderly priest with a secret past, begins to investigate after his parishioners come under attack, and with the help of Jones, a young businessman with an estranged child, Montgomery begins to track down the origin of the Angels.
The Angels are naked and androgynous. They speak in a dreadful harmony with no clear leader. These aren’t biblical cherubs tasked with the protection of the righteous – these are deadly creatures of light that have the power to completely eradicate.
When Jones himself is attacked, Father Montgomery knows he has to act fast. He speaks to the Angels and organises a final showdown where he’s asked to make the ultimate sacrifice.
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
What initially got you interested in writing?
Good question! When I was a kid, I used to make up songs and record them on cassette tapes, and so I learned to play guitar as a teenager so that I could write better songs. I wanted to be a rockstar until I was about sixteen, when I started messing around with poetry and short stories – some of them were pretty good, and so I took it a lot more seriously, spent more and more time doing it, and the rest is history!
How did you decide to make the move into being a published author?
That was always the goal, really – I’d self-published a bunch of books, but I didn’t really bother to promote them properly because their quality was nowhere near as good as you can get from working with a publisher.
I saw self-publishing as something that I did purely so I could hold a copy of the book in my hands after I’d written it, and I guess it was kind of an exercise in ego. Being published properly is something entirely different, because it shows that other people believe in your work (enough to commit their money to it), and it automatically gives an author a higher level of authority. It’s so easy to self-publish these days that anyone can do it, but not anyone can have their work accepted by a publisher!
What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?
It depends! With the book that I have coming out at the moment, I just hope that people read it and enjoy it – there’s no deep message to it or anything like that. In fact, I purposefully tried to avoid it – the main character is a priest and I’m a staunch atheist, and so I had to make sure that I didn’t imply that religion is a bad thing or anything like that. In the context of No Rest for the Wicked, it’s just a thing – totally neutral. But with most of my work, I’m just happy if it makes the reader think!
What do you find most rewarding about writing?
I just have a natural compulsion to write – it’s like scratching an itch. It’s a bit like being a smoker – when you smoke a cigarette, it’s not necessarily a pleasurable experience, but it does satisfy a craving. I guess the most rewarding thing overall is actually holding a finished, printed book in your hands, and knowing that you created it from scratch.
What do you find most challenging about writing?
Finding the time! I’m always so busy, because I have a day job to worry about and I’m also heavily involved with Forsaken, the horror imprint that I’m being published through. I’ve been helping to manage projects for over twenty other writers, which certainly keeps you busy! What with one thing and another, it’s just tricky to find the time to get things done!
What advice would you give to people want to enter the field?
Read and write, as much as you can! It’s hugely important that you build up a good knowledge of the written word and how other writers are using it, because you can pick up on some of the techniques that other writers are using and adapt them to suit your needs. It’s also important to learn as much as you can about marketing, because that’s one of the most important skills that an author can have!
Dane Cobain is a writer, poet and musician from a place you’ve probably never heard of, somewhere in England. When he’s not writing books, he’s reading and reviewing them on his book blog – SocialBookshelves.com – or working at his day job in social media marketing. Find him at Facebook.com/DaneCobainMusic or follow @DaneCobain on Twitter.
