Sunday, March 23, 2014

Writing Process Blog Chain Hop – Four Questions, Four Answers



Many thanks to Leo Featherstone for tagging me in his blog chain hop on March 17th.

Born in 1984, Leo Featherstone earned a BA in English and an MA in museum communication. He works as a freelance bookkeeper and archivist in addition to writing dark fantasy. The conception of his first book occurred when he arbitrarily sketched a vampire character in art class one day in his junior year of high school. This initial drawing led him to write a rough outline for his first story. It wasn't until he graduated from college that he finally sat down and fleshed his story out into a full novel.

Ebon City: Death and the Maiden is his debut novel and he's currently working on his second, Ebon City: Bloodline.

Now to turn the table over to me ...

What am I working on?
 
I am currently working on several short stories for various charity anthologies as well as editing my debut (fictional) novel, Before the Rooster Crows which will be released in late 2014 or early 2015.

When time allows, I also beta read, edit, review and market works for other indie authors.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?
 
My work is mainly non-fiction and depicts the trials and tribulations of living and working on a hobby farm after my very recent retirement from the Information Technology industry.

The pieces I write are somewhat different from the normal non-fiction, memoir, short story genre in that they handle subject matter that many writers choose not to delve into (i.e. death of a farm animal or dealing with getting old/turning gray).

Why do I write what I do?
 
Simply put, I write because it makes me happy and it is an outlet for the many events that have occurred and continue to occur in my life and on my farm.

How does my writing process work? 
 
I will normally write down ideas as they come to me and then let them brew for a bit before getting into the details of the story. Basically, I write an outline and then fill in the blanks as a rough draft before fine-tuning the story into a finished piece. 

I’m now passing the Writing Process Blog Hop to the next three writers. Check their blogs next week to read their answers to the Four Writing Process Questions.


A.C. Winfield

A.C. Winfield (or Amy) lives in St.Ives (Porthia) on the west coast of Cornwall, England.

A lot of her influences come from her neighboring surroundings in Cornwall and also from her most favorite place in the whole wide world, North Devon.
At secondary school she was diagnosed with having slight dyslexia which made English and exams a struggle but determined, she managed to get the GCSEs needed for her college course.

After leaving school Amy then studied NVQ Photography and continued her passion for art and photography by selling her art work at local fairs and events, while sharing her enthusiasm for art with children at schools and holiday clubs.

Since 2006 Amy has had the land of Ia (looking a lot like the outline of Cornwall with influences from North Devon's landscape) floating around and forming inside her head. Characters, creatures, places soon followed the story told to her by Stella.

Along with Stella came Ebony and her legacy.

Amy now runs her own children's party entertainment business called The Little Art Party and uses her art and photography skills to create covers/ illustrations for other authors as well as completing her own children's books.

A.C. Winfield's books can be purchased on Amazon.


Blog: http://acwinfield43.wix.com/acwinfield#!blog/cfrq

Website: http://acwinfield43.wix.com/acwinfield

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mimi.winfield



Gisela Hausmann


Gisela Hausmann is the author of nine books, including award-winning "Naked Determination, 41 Stories About Overcoming Fear".

Her first book "Vienna - Aerial Panorama" was selected as a gift for President Clinton, when he visited her hometown Vienna.

Born to be an adventurer, Gisela has also co-piloted small planes, produced movies, and by chance "met" two KGB-agents and an undercover sky-marshal.
A unique mixture out of wild risk-taker and careful planner, she has globe-trotted almost 100,000 miles on three continents, including to the locations of her favorite books: Doctor Zhivago's Russia, Heinrich Harrer's Tibet, and Genghis Khan's Mongolia.

Gisela Hausmann graduated with a master's degree from the University of Vienna. She now lives with her cats Artemis and Yin-Yang in Greenville, SC.

These days Gisela writes funny life skills books, telling her adventures and pointing out what pivotal approach helped her to succeed. 

Gisela Hausmann's books can be purchased on Amazon. 


Blog: http://nakeddetermination.blogspot.com



Alison Nappi


Alison Nappi has earned her B.A. in English with an emphasis in creative writing and a minor in communication. She has worked professionally as a ghost writer, copy writer, editor and proofreader. As  a mystic-minister Alison has helped hundreds of people re-write their personal stories and heal themselves by providing the right catalyst at the right time, and is now utilizing this experience to serve the artistic and creative community.

Alison is a writer who believes in the privilege of madness. She lives the archetypical stories of humanity on a game board in her mind. The heroines and villains of the stories of being human find form in her life.

In her free time, she's a storm goddess. Determined to create sharable meaning from the halls of insanity, torment and chaos, she spends her days and nights making maps with symbols we call words and dreams. She is working on her memoir, and a series of books about the fragmented nature of the human mind, all while regularly contributing to The Rebelle Society.

If there was one thing she could tell you, it would be that the wizard behind the curtain is you. Be powerful.




Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Indie Author Reviews - March 2014


I am a firm believer in authors supporting other authors.  This may be the reason I gravitate towards the Indie Author movement.  There is so much support and camaraderie amongst us that it is hard to find a bad apple in the bunch.

The books reviewed this month are well written and wonderfully crafted, leaving the reader satisfied and ready to read more works from these very talented authors.




by Arlene R. O'Neil



By Gisela Hausmann



By Brenda Perlin



By Jim Proctor



By Martin Crosbie