Top Selling Authors: Get To Know Them Better

Featured Interview With Addison Winters

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in the Midwest and after decades of shoveling snow, I turned in my snow shovel for golf clubs and moved to sunny Phoenix, Arizona. I have always had an overly-active imagination and loved to read and research anything that piques my interest. I spend most of my time writing two drastically different genres; erotica under my name and young adult fiction under A. L. Waddington. When I am not lost in a world of my own creation, I can be found hiking the mountains around the southwest regions of the country or fitting in another 18 holes. I have a master’s in psychology and am currently working on my doctorate. I live with my husband Eric, our daughters, four spoiled puppies, and a bearded dragon.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started reading heavily at a young age as an escape and began writing short stories and poems in grade school. I was a journalist on the school newspaper in junior high and had my first poem published nationally when I was 24 years old.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors include Anne Rice, Stephen King, and Diana Gabaldon among many others. I never adhere to any particular genre, but rather will read anything that intrigues me including young adult, history, romance, mystery, psychological thrillers, or paranormal mysticism. My father taught me a love of reading, and my grandfather fostered my ideas of being an author. My husband, and children continually inspire me to write with their ability to take risks, color outside the lines, and always keep life entertaining.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My most recent release is the second book in my With Honors series, Making the Dean’s List. The first book, What I Really Learned in College ended with a cliff hanger. Therefore, book two picks up directly where the first book left off.
In the first book, the main character, Alex is a single mother of two young boys in her early thirties who decides to go back to college and get that degree she always dreamed of. It portrays a realistic and comedic view of the differences between her expectations and the realities of the college world she finds herself thrust into along with the struggles of balancing school, home, single-parenting, studying, and her son’s extracurricular activities. Still, having a little fling with her 21 year-old classmate, Mason certainly eases the pressures a bit.
Book 2 shows that timing is everything in a relationship and sometimes you can’t send a boy to do a man’s job. But how do you decide between the boy you’re currently dating and the man you know you could spend the rest of your life with…if you’d only met him first? Sexual escapades, student teaching, homework, her children’s activities, the annoying ex-husband, and friends who wish they could switch places with her keep Alex’s life interesting. But the problem with seeing two men is that eventually the truth comes out!
Making the Dean’s List was a lot of fun to write and I’ve really enjoyed exploring the world these characters reside in. Their friends and loved ones have been entertaining and have made sure they keep their lives interesting. As I work on the third and final installment in this series, Transferring Credits, I can honestly say that I am going to miss these individuals dearly. They have become such a large part of my life over the last several years and I have loved watching them develop and grow as they all chase after their dreams, career, and true love.

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Featured Interview With Kate Ashenden

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m a wife, a sister, a daughter and a mother. I love spending time with my family and friends and appreciating the simple pleasures in life. I grew up in England and I still live here in a town an hour away from London. I love being creative, so in addition to writing, I like to paint, mainly scenery or flowers.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Ever since I was a child. I started writing poetry, then short stories with pictures I drew myself. I’ve always loved storytelling, exploring my imagination, it’s a great feeling.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love romantic suspense, because of the excitement and mystery it generates. Also, it challenges me to write a ‘page turner’ of a plot. I guess TV dramas and films inspire me in the way they show action and emotion to hold the viewers’ interest.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
‘Wanted in Paradise’ is primarily about the power of love, escapism, discovery and rivalry. Readers are transported to the Maldives and can imagine what it’s like to be in this place of paradise. Fantasy also plays a key part, in the way an ordinary girl experiences the glamorous lifestyle of a millionaire pop star and a billionaire Sheikh. The book also makes the reader wonder what will happen because of the different twists and turns.

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Featured Interview With Nellie Cake

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in the Appalachia mountains in Kentucky. Now I live in a concrete world. I’ve had a lot of dogs as companions, but will never let my hear get involved in any pet or human. I wrote one autobiography, novel type, but have four different titles for the same book because I like all my titles. I divided them so I could offer them in chapters. I also wrote six smaller books which are take offs or detailed stories that are in my main book. Before the age of nine cousins, uncles, brothers, and strangers were raping my sisters and me. A man beat and raped me at gun point.

The next day he beat, raped and shot my two little girl friends. I left home and school in fourth grade. When I did try to go home, one of my uncles raped me. There were so many rapes happening that I’m not sure if he’s the father of my first daughter. My family hates me because him, by brothers, other uncles and cousins were raping my sisters and me. My mom, dad and family stole the baby and raised her as theirs. The Iron Horseman motorcycle gang stole my next son I gave birth to.

He had double pneumonia and a broken collar bone from me getting beat for three nights before the night of labor and living on the streets in the snow. The gang thought I hurt my baby. My stomach exploded from being an alcoholic putting me in a coma for nine months. While in the coma my mother-in-law stole my next two children. They were seven and eleven when they were stolen. My fifth child arm robbed a bank in Lake County, Florida with a gang and her boyfriend, Jesse James. (Go figure.)

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
It wasn’t a fascination with books, it was a fascination with writing. Since the age of nine after that man shot my two friends when I was nine, I started carrying a pencil or pen and something to write on. Even through homelessness, hitching in snow for many years looking for my kids, in prisons and jails, through the brutal beatings and rapes I carried writing material. Fake stories, fantasy, thrillers, romance, and porn sells good. If you have imagination and talent, go for those genders.

I’ve never seen anything, but reality so making up romance or children’s books that lie to them isn’t my thing. If you have imagination and haven’t destroyed by the reality called life, you will make money. Writing about real things that happened in someone’s life, autobiographies don’t make money. Don’t let nasty reviewers depress you, they do it for money or rewards, but take what you learn from their review and make your book better. I love typing and writing.

My last daughter has read most all the huge books with no pictures because I brain washed her while she was growing up by telling her she can escape in the big books. I didn’t know about paragraph structure, sentences, punctuation, and formatting because I left school and home in fourth. Then I met my room-mate I have now who taught all this to me.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
The movie, “Deliverance” freaked me out and made a lasting sickening impression. That boy wasn’t really playing that banjo. Hillbillies are like that and it is like that in mountains many years ago, but movies and books exaggerate and make fun of us. I’m in an inbred hillbilly if you haven’t guessed. I had a sick family who alienated me over and over and have now alienated me again for exposing the nasty dirt in our family. Most of which they didn’t know about till I wrote it.

I was getting upset to read online in a lot of books, movies, websites, and articles that inbred hillbillies are blue, deformed and have horrid defects. I want to debunk the stereotyping of hillbillies, homelessness, exotic strip dancers, cock fighters, inmates, and victims of rape and abuse. I’m not blue and have no defects. I do like to be bare foot and I wash my overalls to be clean, not to impress city folk. Hillbillies on my side of the holler do make moonshine, grow weed and don’t road kill lesson it’s soft.

My dad, being a preacher held a double barrel and married me to an abusive man. The book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” again people who are not an inbred hillbilly writing about us. I’m very honored to have so many interested in inbred hillbillies.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
“Dear Whack Job Narcissist,” was written because I’ve lived with, loved and tolerated hundreds of narcissist, murders and rapist. Most were long term relationships that ended in deep trauma for me. I parted from each one in the most hilarious fitting ways. My hurt from the many years of damage pushes me to continue writing knowing that violence in the world will never stop. I want to shame abusers, rapist, narcissist even murderers.

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Nellie Cake’s Website

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Featured Interview With Mary Elizabeth Fricke

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m a farm girl who has lived her entire life within five miles north or south of the Missouri River. My husband and I own/operate a productive family farm that has been in his family for five generations. We are proud of our rural heritage and that prompts me to use rural Missouri as primary setting for most of my novels.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was telling stories before I knew how to write them down. I grew up knowing I would always ‘write a book’ but I didn’t actually write until I was twenty-one. My mother was a published poet and an avid reader. Her influence touched not only my sister, brother and I but all of our children. I miss the time when Mom and I would share books and talk about them. I miss hearing her read aloud to my sons. Huckleberry Finn was a favorite of both of my sons. My sons still talk about how Mom would read as the characters in the books spoke.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read romance more than anything but I also like non-fiction historicals, biographies, as well as science-fiction and action. Kathleen Woodiwiss’s ‘Ashes in the Wind’ is my all time favorite book. No one I’ve read has been able to compare to Mrs. Woodiwiss’s unique prose and ability to draw the reader in to where it feels as if you are on the sidelines watching the scenes unfold right before your eyes.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
I recently published my Sweet Pea Trilogy in paperback. The story of Sweet Pea actually began as a contemporary story in 1976. It has grown considerably since and I cannot tell you how many times it has been rewritten and rejected by some publisher or editor. In 2017, I self-published the story in three separate titles: Book I: Demise of Innocence, Book II: Time to Deceive and Book III: The Price of Passion. In Feb. 2018, I published the entire trilogy under one cover titled “Sweet Pea Gift Set (Books I, II, III). Then, so many people asked that I please also publish it in paperback that I did so in time for Christmas 2018. The Sweet Pea Trilogy is now available from Amazon. In fact, I am currently running a holiday sale with all of my previous published e-books. All are available for .99 until Jan. 24, 2019 (except for the Sweet Pea Gift Set).

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Mary Elizabeth Fricke’s Website

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Featured Interview With Marcel St. Pierre

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name’s Marcel St. Pierre, and I’m a Canadian writer, born in the province of New Brunswick on Canada’s east coast, and I currently call Toronto home. I moved here in the early 1990s with a teaching degree, but I wanted to try comedy, so I became an improvisor, actor and comedian. I’ve performed across North American, and I’ve been writing for television here in Canada since the mid 1990s, mostly in kids’ television for YTV (Canada’s home-grown version of Nickelodeon) as well as various kids’ shows on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). My wife and I share our little city box dwelling with our four-pound Yorkshire terror-dog, Bella.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Books have always been around me, from story books to comic books to novels to Readers’ Digest – you name it, if it had words I was all over it. Thanks to my mom and Sesame Street, I could actually read well before I entered grade one, which is not to say I’m gifted in any way; more like I peaked early. But I started little stories and jokes as long as I can literally remember. I would make my own comic books with Spiderman and Star Trek characters, and write my own stories featuring my television heroes – basically I was doing fan-fiction before it was even a thing. My grade 5 friend Eric and I wrote a series of picture books featuring characters drawn with our geometry kits, and we’d charge kids 5 cents a pop to read each episode.

All through high school I was the kid who would yell “YAY” every time our English teacher said we had a writing assignment, and by university I had a regular opinion column in the student newspaper.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My work could be described as what would happen if you mixed Stephen King with Douglas Adams via The Muppets. I’m also a huge fan of David Sedaris and Steve Martin. Overall, my favourite genre to read is biography and autobiography – which I’ve noticed draws an absolute blank from anybody wanting to know what other books I like reading. I find myself drawn to reading the biographies and autobiographies of 1960s counter-culture heroes, mostly musicians the likes of Neil Young, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and the like. I also have recently read the journals of Michael Palin as well as John Cleese’s recent autobiography.

I find reading about people whose work inspires me in any discipline tends to stoke my own creative juices and come up with awkward analogies like “stoking my juices” and such.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is “Cliche And Wind Go Hitchhiking”, a collection of short, humorous stories. It’s the second book to come out of a year-long writing experiment I undertook in 2013. I’d been down on myself about how little personal writing I’d been doing for myself, so starting on January 1st, I tasked myself with writing at least ONE piece of creative writing a day. A poem, a limerick, a top 10 list – it didn’t matter what it was, as long as I wrote ONE thing every day.

By the end of the year, I had 365 pieces of writing to sort through – and over the next year or so I dabbled with editing a story or poem here and there. But it wasn’t till 2015 when I was laid off from my day-job that I truly took stock of what I had and decided that – rather than mope and get depressed until I found new work – I would actually make some calls and pull some strings and see where I could go with this.

I was determined that getting laid off wasn’t going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, but instead I turned it into the spark of necessity (awkward metaphors. I love them) that so far has resulted in two books of short stories, and a small publisher who believes in the work enough to take me on and publish them.

Many (okay, most of the stories) touch a little on the paranormal. They’re absurdly surreal short stories – really short for today’s dwindling attention spans, and that’s by design as well as personal preference. Most are between 1 to 3 pages long. The stories and characters in Cliché and Wind Go Hitchhiking turn the truly absurd into the new normal, for instance: a lovesick, muscle-car-driving Sasquatch takes matters into his own hands. A man’s shoes start telling passersby what he’s really thinking. A bumblebee witnesses a plot by four inept criminals go horribly wrong. A grizzly bear waiting tables reconsiders his career choices.

The stories portray real people and characters you can identify with — then I tweak their reality and put them in scenarios that absolutely turns their worlds upside down. It’s sort of an exploration of fantasy, daydream moments that are just real and weird enough that at least one other person must think they’re funny, too, right?

… delightful… on par with the best of David Sedaris…
Paul Bellini, author and writer for Kids In The Hall

… a worthy companion to Steve Martin’s Cruel Shoes or Jon Stewart’s Naked Pictures Of Famous People…
Steven Shehori, author, writer, Huffingon Post

… twistedly unexpected, delightfully bonkers and highly recommended…
Marilla Wex, The Beaverton Foreign Correspondent

… a great escape … quirky, zany and funny…
Ali Hassan, host of CBC Radio’s Canada Reads

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Marcel St. Pierre’s Website

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Featured Interview With Amaranthine Poetry

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m Amaranthine Poetry. I’m a Nigerian-born Indian poet/author. I self-published my debut collection in May 2018. I love reading modern poetry. I love food. Mostly vegetarian (I love Chicken). I love sleeping (escaping the world). Not very outdoorsy but I admire the nature. Huge RihannaNavy and ClaflinFan!

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was like 13 or 14 when I started reading. I love Enid Blyton’s books. J.K.Rowling’s Harry Potter. Then by 2016 I started writing poetry. I fell in love with it and now I love reading modern poetry a lot.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Rupi Kaur, Pablo Neruda, Atticus, R.H.Sin and there’s this instapoet @the_mumbling_hermit they are my favourite poets. I’ve read their work religiously. And they’ve definitely inspired me.

I love reading modern poetry now. A lot. But I’m also currently reading Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald.

Love in all of it’s shapes and forms inspires me to write. I’ve been through depression. So these things heavily influence my work.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
It’s a Poetry collection. It’s called Notes From The Heart. I wrote it in a span of two years and three months (2016-17 and till April 2018). I never thought of a book before. I was always like who’s going to read a poetry book, you know? But then I was looking on the internet after a friend suggested to do so and I saw Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur and Atticus with Love Her Wild were blowing up . So I was like let’s put this together. Hopefully people read it and love it and most importantly, connect to it.

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Featured Interview With Aleechea Pitts

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am an author of 3 books, seminar leader and Founder of Paulean Ministries. I am an experienced lecturer and have extensive training in Biblical Counseling which makes me effective in reaching out to others.I was raised in Bridgeton, NJ. I live in Millville, NJ with my dog, Murphy.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I had a fascination with books at the age of 14. I started writing around the age of 19.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors to read are Maya Angelou and Alice Walker to name a few. My favorite genre to read it’s Non-fiction, motivation and insulation inspirational. God inspires me in my writings.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
I use examples from my own experiences. It is a Christian approach to healing after life’s pain. I apply my concepts of forgiveness to ministry and personal relationships. I don’t preach get over it and instead teach you how to reshape your view, understand forgiveness and process your feelings in a healthy and constructive manner. It is an exploration on forgiveness that is going to challenge you to get better with real life stories and real life approaches. It took me about 6 months to write it.

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Aleechea Pitts’s Website

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Featured Interview With Urvashi Vats

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am Urvashi Vats from Uttarakhand India. I have pursued M.com, MBA ( Human Resources) & MA Education( Education Psychology). I am an Author, Career Counselor, Published Author at Mirakee & a Positive Thinker. I use to write quotes at Your quote app & Mirakee as well. Till now I have written 200 Quotes & all quotes are live on google.
I have a pet & it’s name is Baadshah.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have a passion of writing since my college life. I begin writing since my college life, that time i used to write Quotes & anything that use to come in my mind i used to write it in my diary.
After that I was busy pursuing my career, but somewhere my passion was lyeing there in a corner of my heart & i always wished to fulfill that.
After that one and half year back I started my passion of writing through Facebook. I used to write poems & Quotes and my first poem Sister’s Relation was published as a note on Facebook. It encouraged me a lot and enhanced my passion that led me to start my blogs on word press and bloggers.com and with the passage of time I joined Qwerty Thoughts, women’s web & Youth ki Awaaz as an Author & as a Blogger on Momspresso. On Qwerty Thoughts I write poems and stories & all my poems & stories are published at Qwerty Thoughts.
Recently my Book is being published at Qwerty Thoughts.
With it i use to write articles on Women’s web and Youth Ki Awaaz and blogs on Momspresso.
My purpose of writing is to create awareness regarding social issues related to women’s in such a way that would lead to a positive change in the world.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My Favorite genre to read includes Fiction, Self help & personal development.
My Favorite Books are:
Stephen R. Covey, – His book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Stephen R.covey has so simply define the habits or I can say things that makes the readers understand what message he wants to convey & that has leave a great impact on readers.

Kate Bowler, – Her Book is Everything Happens For a Reason.
kate bowler has through her life experience conveyed such a great life lesson that everything in life happens fir a reason, if something good happens try your best to be better then before & if something bad happens then learn a lesson from it & move ahead & while doing so enjoy every moment of life which has leaves an impact on readers.

3)You Can Win- A self help book by Shiv Khera which tells that if we have a positive attitude we can win no matter whatever the circumstances are.

My Favourite three Authors are-
1) Munshi Premchand- The best thing i liked in his novels was the way he has explained the critics of social issues in such an easy & understandable way that has conveyed his message well to the society & has grab the attention of reader that has lend him to become a famous Indian Novelist.
2) Swami Vivekanand – The best thing about his writings is he used to write quotes & books on the basis of his real experiences in a simple way that has become an inspiration for others.
3) Harivansh Rai Bachchan- The best thing about his writings is the way he has grab the interest of people in his books.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
The latest Book written by Me is Change Begins With Ourselves. This is a Self help Book under category non- Fiction published at Qwerty Thoughts. My Book Change Begins With Ourselves is based on various perspectives related to women’s where i realized that change should be there in our way of thinking & our attitude towards various perspectives so that social issues may not arise.

“Anything good has to happen when change will be there”…
This Quote written by Me tells that whenever change will be there in any way whether it be a little or a big one, it will obviously lead to a betterment of women’s living in society which my Book Change Begins With Ourselves says.

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Urvashi Vats Facebook Page

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Featured Interview With Angel Strong

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Detroit Michigan, where in which I currently reside. However, I was born in Columbus, Ga.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My fascination with books occurred early on in my youth. I believe I was just ten years old, the first time I read my first romance novel. My mother would read Harlequin Romances religiously , and I was always curious as to what she’d read. I can remember her giggling or crying at times when reading, which sparked my interest. I just had to read what had evoked such emotions from her. I can remember the shock like it was yesterday. The story was racy, to say the least. Totally not a read for minors. However, just as I had gotten hooked on my mom’s soaps, I had now become hooked on romance books. (SECRETLY OF COURSE)

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors are, Alyssa Cole, Beverly Jenkins, Johanna Lindsey, Beverly Clearly, Bernice McFadden, and Jesmyn Ward.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Thandi’s Love: A Novel, is a dark historical romance, which explores the friendship and torrid love affair between beautiful mulatto slave, Thandi Boran, and her married master, Tom Lexington. It is an intense love story, set in pre-civil war era South Carolina, that I think many romance readers will find engaging. When I first published the story, I did so, not expecting a reaction, but instead it was a bucket list item, that I needed to cross off my list. To my surprise, since it’s release ,the story has received an overall favorable response from readers and even caught the attention of a film company. Presently, a book to film adaptation on the story, is in the works.

Featured Interview With Nellie Cake

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in the Appalachia mountains in Kentucky. Now I live in a concrete world. I’ve had a lot of dogs as companions, but will never let my hear get involved in any pet or human. I wrote one autobiography, novel type, but have four different titles for the same book because I like all my titles. I also wrote six smaller books which are take offs or detailed stories that are in my main book. Before the age of nine cousins, uncles, brothers, and strangers were raping my sisters and me. A man beat and raped me at gun point. The next day he beat, raped and shot my two little girl friends. I left home and school in fourth grade. When I did try to go home, one of my uncles raped me. There were so many rapes happening that I’m not sure if he’s the father of my first daughter. The family hates me because he raped me. My mom, dad and family stole the baby and raised her as theirs. The Iron Horseman motorcycle gang stole my next son I gave birth to. He had double pneumonia and a broken collar bone from me getting beat for three nights before the night of labor and living on the streets in the snow. The gang thought I hurt my baby. My stomach exploded from being an alcoholic putting me in a coma for nine months.

While in the coma my mother-in-law stole my next two children. They were seven and eleven when they were stolen. My fifth child arm robbed a bank in Lake County, Florida with a gang and her boyfriend, Jesse James. (Go figure.)

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’m not fascinated with books, I’m fascinated with writing. I don’t think my writing habits are different than any other authors these days considering the computer age and it’s constant advancing. I keep word pad minimized and write when something important needs to be entered. While living on the streets, highways and prisons, I kept a pencil or pen and paper. All my life I’ve been carrying something to write with and on. It started off wanting to tell about my two little girl friends who were shot.

Then I wanted to tell on all the family and strangers who beat and raped my sisters and me and tell on everyone who stole my children.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
The only book I’ve ever read is the Bible.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
I’m working on the last book I’ll ever write, but then most authors say, “This is the last one” with each last one. I haven’t decided, but the title so far is, “Here’s Your Fucking Card.” Through continuously writing, putting my story in cyber land, my first daughter found me, but we still haven’t met in person. I found my second daughter, but she has an attitude because she was told all her life that I was dead. She sold the house and property I owned when I ran from my abusive husband which was their father. I found out online that my two sons have died of cocaine overdose and I’ve never met them. I read online that my little sister overdosed. Dad was a Pentecost Oneness Evangelist, a Charlatan. He shot his self in the head in the New Mexico court house.
I don’t think my writing habits are different than any other authors these days considering the computer age and it’s constant advancing. I keep word pad minimized and write when something important needs to be entered. While living on the streets, highways and prisons, I kept a pencil or pen and paper. All my life I’ve been carrying something to write with and on. It started off wanting to tell about my two little girl friends who were shot. Then I wanted to tell on all the family and strangers who beat and raped my sisters and me and tell on everyone who stole my children.

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Nellie Cake’s Website

Nellie Cake Twitter Account

Featured Interview With Francine Garson

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m a true Jersey girl! Although I’ve moved around a bit, I’ve spent most of life, and currently live, within a twenty minute drive of my beloved New Jersey shore. With grown children in New York and Chicago, these days I live with my husband, a mellow orange rescue cat named Simba, and many, many books.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve been a lifelong reader, and I was blessed with a mother who encouraged my love of books. Every couple of weeks, with my sister and me in tow, she made the trek out of our small (one square mile) town to the old Victorian house that was the county library at the time. I still have vivid memories of climbing up to the third floor of that gingerbread house kind of building and carefully choosing the three books I was allowed to borrow from the children’s section.
I won my first writing contest at the age of ten with an essay entitled ‘What Thrift Means To Me.’ Although I’m no longer an expert on that particular subject, I guess budgeting my weekly allowance was enough to make me an authority back then. But, a few years later, I put my writing dreams aside and went to college, graduate school, and pursued a career in college administration. I never stopped reading though, and reading, and reading some more. Then, ten years ago, I began to write seriously. And surprising even myself, a number of my short pieces of both fiction and non-fiction were published and even won awards. So today, I realize that those first few years of serious writing as well as a lifetime of insatiable reading were…preparation…the preparation that I needed to do in order to write my debut novel, ‘Things’.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I don’t know that I can pick a favorite author, but I usually read character-driven books with strong plot elements. I’ve recently loved ‘Little Fires Everywhere’ by Celeste Ng, ‘Do Not Become Alarmed’ by Maile Meloy, ‘Small Great Things’ by Jodi Picoult, and ‘Beartown’ by Fredrik Backman. My favorite books are those that make me think long after I’ve finished the last page. I hope that my own book, ‘Things’ will do that for its readers.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
‘Things’ is the story of Jenny Gilbert, who to everyone who knows her, is a successful young college counselor. But secretly, she is also a collector, some may even say a hoarder. As a former military brat, she is on a mission to find and reacquire the many relics of her childhood that she was forced to leave behind with each of her family’s moves, and she has rented a secret second apartment to accommodate her growing obsession.
When Jenny reconnects with Nick, a man from her past, a romance begins. But, as she tries to hide an increasingly complicated web of secrets from the man she’s falling in love with, she becomes enmeshed in a messy tangle of omissions, half-truths, and lies. Then, when Hurricane Sandy adjusts its course, aiming itself directly at both of her apartments on the New Jersey shore, Jenny finds herself catapulted into a truly desperate situation.
At its heart, ‘Things’ is the story of a young woman searching for a sense of rootedness, a sense of home. But, she needs to learn that amassing physical things is not the way to find it, and that what she seeks is not an external thing at all. Her quest is aided, as well as complicated, by Nick’s arrival and the looming threat of the most destructive hurricane in New Jersey’s history.
‘Things’ grew out of my love for the New Jersey shore coupled with my own feelings about the catastrophe that was Hurricane Sandy and my personal experience as a college advisor. It is often said to write what you know, and those are things I do in fact, know about. But, unlike Jenny, I did not grow up in a military family, and I am much more of a minimalist than a hoarder. So, I subscribe to another bit of writerly advice…Write what you WANT to know. Write what you can IMAGINE. And do your research!

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Featured Interview With Ellie J Duck

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in rural New South Wales, on the family farm. Currently, I live in Brisbane, Queensland with my partner and our two cats.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I fell in love with reading as a child. My mother would read to my brother and I before bed each night, and when I grew old enough for independent reading, I dove into it with a vengeance. I first started writing books off my own at fifteen when the books showcased my my local library and school library, and those I could afford off the shelves in the bookstores had all been devoured and I was looking for my next literary fix.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I absolutely love books by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Shelley Laurenston, Rachel Vincent, Gerilyn Marin, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, J.K. Rowling, Sarah J. Mass, and Jean M. Auel.

My favourite genre is definitely paranormal romance and fantasy. There’s just something so enticing about a steamy romance plot with a magical or paranormal twist, isn’t there? I would say that all of those authors listed above have inspired me in their own ways. I endeavour to lure my readers into my plots as those lovely ladies lured me into their fantastical worlds.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is also my debut novel. It’s called PARANORMAL DIVISION: AWAKENING, and is available on Amazon.com.

I first fell in love with the idea of a werewolf for the romantic male lead in my teens, and the idea has stuck with me to this day. I began writing this particular tale about Anna Cane and Tobias Hilton, the sassy and snarky paranormal agents, back in 2015. After a lot of rewrites and a good deal of procrastination, I finally took the plunge and self-published it.

A little peek into what the book is about can be found here:
“Recruited to a supernatural squad that hunt down paranormal creatures when they break the law, sassy and woefully human, Anna Cane is just your average every day girl. You know, except for the ability to take out a target from twenty-five hundred yards and her ill-fated habit of finding herself in the most inconvenient situations. Unfortunately for Anna, joining the team might just turn out to be the biggest in a line of inconveniences when she becomes a target among the paranormal community. After all, a human assassinating a paranormal for killing humans feels more like revenge than justice, doesn’t it?

Grisly death threats and a too-friendly vampire are the least of her worries when Anna learns that those holding their grudges with her humanity include fellow Paranormal Division agent and sexy as the devil werewolf, Tobias Hilton.”

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Featured Interview With Michael Walsten

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Minneapolis and Excelsior, Minnesota. My wife and I moved to beautiful Bradenton, Florida in 2005. In between, I have lived in Park City, UT, Denver, CO and Linville, NC.
I enjoy golf, fishing, reading, and walking in our semi-tropical neighborhood.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
During my late teens and early twenties I read voraciously: Kurt Vonnegut, Henry Miller, Franz Kafka, Alan Watts … I guess those were my esoteric years. My current favorite novel is Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. A classic I am currently reading and thoroughly enjoying is Robinson Crusoe … Defoe wrote exceptional descriptions of isolation, loneliness and survival. Another great descriptive writer I’ve recently started reading is Zane Gray, especially The Mysterious Rider.
I always knew I wanted to write, but I kept putting it off.
In 1989 I wrote a non-fiction work, Help Wanted: How Winning Companies are Recruiting, Motivating and Retaining Quality Employees (Resource Direction). It sold quite well, in bulk, to service corporations such as McDonalds, Target, and Holiday Inns, who distributed it to their managers and franchisees.
I didn’t take the fiction-writing plunge until July, 2018 when I began Separated at the Border – a Novel (now available in trade paper and ebook).

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
In addition to those previously mentioned, some of the novels I’ve read and enjoyed over the past year include First Blood by David Morrell, Slaughterhouse Five (again) by Vonnegut, Looking for Rachel Wallace by Robert B. Parker, the Jack Reacher novels and Michael Connelly.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
In Separated at the Border, Diamond Herrera, a 24-year-old freelance journalist and Jason Taylor, an ex-Army Ranger and journalism professor team up with the ACLU and the Catholic Church to fight human trafficking and abuse at a privately-run immigrant youth detention facility in the Florida Everglades. Along the way, Di and Jason are forced to take on a Miami-based gang and a corrupt facility administrator while skirting the law and dodging a suspicious Broward County Sheriff’s detective.
The story is set in South Florida. I began writing it in July and finished it in December, 2018.
I love the characters and the story … and hope my readers will as well.
I don’t know if it’s an official genre, but I think of this book and my next, Green Water, as topical fiction … incorporating current events into the storyline.
I do my writing sitting on my lanai (the Florida name for a screened in patio) overlooking a golf course and a pond with a huge variety of shorebirds and waterfowl, as well as families of sandhill cranes. When I get stuck, I just stare out over this beautiful nature until the next scene comes to me.

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Featured Interview With Jessica Simpkiss

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Jessica. I was raised in many different places but feel that Earlysville, Virginia defined my childhood. Currently I live in Virginia Beach with my husband, daughter and our pet hedgehog, Quilliam Hedgemond Simpkiss.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I don’t remember exactly when the fascination started, which makes me think it was always there. Growing up, I was diagnosed with dyslexia which has always affected my reading skills. I am a terribly slow reader but I love reading. In high school I was on the literary magazine and the school paper and thought I was going to be a famous writer. Reality kicked in while in college and the need to learn something more marketable than creative writing got the better of me. I majored in Art History (I know I said something more marketable, but at the time it seemed like a good idea) and immediately moved from the DC area to a little town in the middle of Florida, never to use my Art History degree. I lost my writing and creative voice for awhile, but I have found it once again and just published my first novel, The Spaewife’s Secret.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I don’t know if I have a favorite author. Often times I’ll read a book I love by an author and read something else in their catalogue and not love it as much. I love reading different and obscure things.

I love historical fiction. I love that certain things in this genre could have happened the way authors decide to portray them. My second novel, tentatively entitled Bone in the Blood is my first foray into the genre and is based in 1950s Ireland and follows the lives of three different women who are all affected by Irelands homes for unwed mothers. Even though the book is entirely fictional, the events and characters may have existed close to how I have portrayed them, and I love that.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Spaewife’s Secret was released by Solstice Publishing in November and is a thriller/mystery hybrid set in the Western Isles of Scotland. Lachlan McKinley returns to the Isles after a twenty year absence after, he claims, a creature from Scottish lore killed his best friend.

The book alternates between an adult, current day version of the main character and a younger version. The chapters parallel each other, leading up to the discovery of the truth about what happened to Arden Scott in the hills behind Bosta Beach.

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Featured Interview With pantea kalhor

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am the co-author of #1 bestselling book “Empowering Women to Succeed: Leap”, change specialist, Project manager and Agile Coach which have enabled me to apply and teach the concept of change management in real life. I was born in Iran, immigrated to Australia and then Canada. Recently I live in Toronto. I don’t have any pets.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
When I was 8 years old. I wrote an essay about Spring. My parents helped me to correct and rephrase my sentences and inspired me to write. One day, I was going to school and a rhythmic poem passed through my mind and I wrote my first poem called “book” in Farsi. Since then I write every day. I love words and I am addicted to writing.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love creative writes with new ideas like paulo coelho. I also respect luoise Hay and dr wayne dyer.
I love good books and it depends my mood and my need. Since my background in IT and in High school I studied Math and physics, I love math. I believe Math is a game of brain. I love problem solving concept. Life is a challenge and we can always find optimized and alternative solutions. So nonfiction in Technology and self help are my favorite. I also love good books about spirituality and self improvement. Good fiction books especially the real memoirs are interesting for me.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
While driving, I was assaulted at knife-point, and my car was stolen. This trauma, paired with the disruptions of moving first to Australia and then to Canada, compelled the me into a cycle of reflection at an early age, a fact I recognized when I responded via e-mail to a friend who was going through a difficult period in her life. My friends was inspired to take control of her life and she motivated me to reach out to others with the objective of improving their lives as well.

Rules of Change for the Better contains thirty rules for a happier and more fulfilling life. Within all of us are capabilities that we have never accessed or skills we have forgotten we possess. The key is to identify these capabilities and exploit them in order to reach our own full potentials. At each stop along my journey—experiencing childhood in Iran during the Iran-Iraq War and then moving across the globe to Australia and around the world again to Canada—I internalized each of the challenges I faced and came to learn that we are all responsible for the changes we need in our own lives.

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Featured Interview With John Egenes

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in Southern California and came of age in the sixties. I hitchhiked and rode freight trains all over the country and finally settled down in Northern New Mexico for 30 years or so, where I was both a musician and a saddlemaker. I now live in New Zealand, in the South Island, where I lecture in music at a major university. I still play and record constantly.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I remember reading all of Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle books, starting when I was about six years old. I have always been a reader, and am never without a book. In fact, I’m often teased about sitting in cafes, a cup of coffee in one hand and a book in the other. I read everything: novels, science fiction, non-fiction, westerns, research material, political and philosophical books, and everything in between.
I’ve been a songwriter most of my life, and have written lots of short stories and poems as well. “Man & Horse” is my first stab at producing a full length book. It has been very well received, and I’m now working on a work of fiction, a novel set in south Texas in the late nineteen sixties.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
There are so many of them that it’s impossible to choose. Different writers bring different things to the table, and I appreciate all of them: character development and presentation, the ability to spin a good yarn, eloquence and literacy of the prose, getting a reader to set aside their disbelief… all those things. There are so many great writers that I’d hate to just name a few, but I’ll try. I love well written books, and even moreso if they spin a good yarn. I like various genres. Writers like Mark Helprin, Tim Winton, Cory Doctorow, Neal Stephenson, Annie Proulx, David Brin, Margaret Attwood, James Morrow, Ivan Doig, Kim Stanley Robinson, John le Carre, Neil Gaiman. They are all marvelous writers who know how to string words and sentences together that flow like a river. A treat to read.

And then there are great nonfiction writers like Sherry Turkle, Andrew Dubber, Katherine Hayles, John Perry Barlow, Tim Wu, Naomi Klein, Lawrence Lessig, Matthew B. Crawford, Kevin Kelly, and a whole string of others… Wish I could list ’em all here.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
“Man & Horse: The Long Ride Across America” tells the tale of a long journey I made in 1974 with my horse, Gizmo. We crossed the United States, coast to coast, from California to Virginia. This is a memoir about our experiences then–me as a young man with a head full of dreams, and Gizmo as a young, inexperienced Quarter Horse. It’s also a look back upon those times, and a re-experiencing of an America that no longer exists.
The main purpose of the ride–if there was one–was to separate myself from my own surroundings and culture. I didn’t exactly think about it in those terms at the time, but I knew that I had a sort of inner need to cut my ties with the people and things I was familiar with, for at least a short time. So, I did that for seven months. Of course, Gizmo kept a thread tied to all of that, and he was the one constant in the whole journey, and in a good part of my life, come to think of it…
I didn’t set out to write a story that simply said, First I did this, and then I did this, and then I did…. Instead, I wanted to say, This is what it was like in 1974, and this is how it feels to live alone with a horse, to carry on long conversations with him, to struggle to keep us both alive and (somewhat) healthy. This is what America looked like back then, from between a horse’s ears.

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Featured Interview With robert emery (pen name R. J. Eastwood

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Bristol, Rhode Island, but have been a Florida resident since 1970. I spent my career writing and directing motion pictures and Tv productions, but turned to writing novels once I retired from active production. This year my work was honored by the 2017 Author’s Circle, Novel of Excellence, for best Fiction, the 2018 Readers’ Favorite award for Book of the Year by Book TalkRadio, and the 2018 Readers’ Favorite Award for best Fiction.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I actually began writing short stories around the age of 13-14 without the slightest clue where it might take my life path. I was with Armed Forces Radio & Television while in the Air Force, and I think that’s when I got serious about writing, which was for movies and television. Writing novels became an extension of that

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Lee Child, Steven King, Cormac McCarthy. I think Lee Child has the greatest influence on me. His ability to paid a scene is second to none.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
Midnight Black was an idea I had about an ex-DEA officer who was sentenced for a murder and placed in total isolation for 20 years. He’s paroled 5 years early and returns to a world on the brink of collapse. His parole calls for him to work in drug enforcement again, until he learns the drug mission of the unit he’s assigned to. I wanted to toss this character in the middle of chaos and see how it might find his way out of it. Initial reviews indicate I may have touched a human button that people can relate to, but hope it never happens. It took 13 months and every page was a discovery since I do not outline my books . I know the main character, his plight, I know the beginning and the end, but that’s all. I go from there and let my imagination take me to that known ending.

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Featured Interview With Stenetta Anthony

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Stenetta Anthony is an author who writes books that inform, inspire, educate and entertain. She was an educator for 20 + years and still continues to volunteer in supporting the educational development of children. Her time spent in the classroom using her own unique style of storytelling. Stenetta storytelling has now extended into publishing with her creating children’s books for her young reading audience. Stenetta has a Bachelor Degree in Educational Studies and Specialist in Special Education Development. Stenetta resides in Chicago, Illinois with her husband, children, and grandchildren.
Two of Stenetta’s favorite past times are watching cartoons and being an at-home contestant of the television game show Jeopardy. One of Stenetta’s favorite phrases comes from P.L Travers, Mary Poppins, “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun, with her writing being her most enjoyable element in life.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Although I enjoyed writing most of my life, my official writing career began at the ripe young age of 50.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Some of my favorite authors are John Maxwell, T.D. Jakes, and Judy Blume. My favorite genre of book to read is children books. They allowed me to escape back to my childhood. The inspiration for my writing comes mainly from observing people and nature. Ideas can sometimes when I am just looking at someone walking down the street. The pattern by which a person walks, as you watch people walk you can see everyone has a different step that is made with their shoes.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book, A Home for Saly shares the story of a poodle with a disability who is placed in a permanent kennel. Sally’s considers she is unlovable and unadoptable because of her outer appearance only.

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