Let's have a quickie...

interview

Bio: My name is Louise and I am a writer of chick lit and Eden (which isn't a chick lit, but that was my first book and I wasn't sure which genre I preferred. Now I do!). I also work as a pharmacist technician for a well-known British superstore. I am married and have four children (all boys). Books I have out now are A Proper Charlie and Eden. 

Sentences to describe your novels: Eden - A tale of romance and survival as three people travel from 2236 to the beginning of time. A Proper Charlie - A sometimes passionate, an always funny story of mistaken identities, misunderstandings and class divide.

Next...

I'm all excited...

My début novel, Eden, is being converted to Kindle!

After many reviews, and listening to what people thought, I have revised it and now it's better than ever (or so my husband says!). 

It's still my baby even though I've another book out, and my third, Misanthrope, is being pulled apart by my editor. So what's Eden about? Somebody said it was Beauty and the Beast for Grown-ups and I thought that was very apt. 

Imagine being left stranded somewhere with no way of getting home. No telephone, no computer, no shelter. No food. Now imagine the place you're stranded is another planet. And then you realise you're not alone after all...

Click to buy!

Check out this page for more details: http://louisewise-eden.blogspot.com/

Author spotlight with Kevin Villegas

The greatest empire the world has ever known stands on the brink of destruction.

A powerful invasion from the east coupled with an influx of spies and saboteurs threatens to destroy the Empire of Kirmar. 

The Sunwright family has defended Kirmar for over nine hundred years. The head of the family have mysteriously disappeared; leaving their children to defend the Empire without guidance for the first time. 

Will the Sunwright children be able to pull together enough strength to save their beloved Empire? 

Will the Empire of Kirmar, which has stood for over nine hundred years, finally be swept away? 

Find out in book one of The Sunwright Chronicles.

The Women of “The Sunwright Chronicles – Empire at War”

Kevin Villegas talks to us about The Sunwright Chronicles: Empire at War.

"When it comes to women characters in EMPIRE AT WAR you won’t find the damsel in distress. Instead what you’ll find are strong robust women who are ready to take charge. The women of EMPIRE AT WAR are the far cry from the weak helpless women often portrayed in classic fantasy. There are two reasons for the strength of the female characters in EMPIRE AT WAR. One is I like to write strong female characters that don’t need to rely on a man. Second is in the society of Kirmar strong women are admired, especially in the upper class. There is a good reason for this.

When the Empire of Kirmar was founded by Alidius his wife the Elven Princess Tianna was not one to sit down and let her husband rule alone, while she sat patiently knitting something cute in the corner. Tianna was an active participant in ensuring the stabilization of the young empire. It was often said she was the co-ruler of Kirmar. Together Alidius and Tianna formed the foundation of the Empire, an Empire that has endured for nine hundred years.

Tianna taught her daughters to be strong and aggressive, to not back down and to help keep the empire their mother and father created healthy and strong. The lessons were passed down from mother to daughter. When Claudia the first Empress of Kirmar took the throne nearly four hundred years after the founding of the Empire, there was no doubt of her ability to rule. Kirmar is a rare jewel in the world of Tera that allows all girls to attend school and encourages development and advancement for both men and women." 

You can visit the strong women of Kirmar in “The Sunwright Chronicles – Empire at War”

Buy at Amazon

The Sunwright Chronicles Blog

Blogger went a little crazy...

for a few days. When it came back many bloggers complained that they had lost followers, comments and even entire posts. 


I lost my most recent posts, and their comments. But otherwise I survived unscathed. It made me realised though, that my blog isn't safe just because it's on the 'net. And so I now back it up.


So here's how to save your blog, and it's so easy even my mum could do it! Er, no she probably couldn't actually, but it's easy anyhow.

• Click Design top right hand corner of your blog.
• Click on Settings.
• Click Export Blog.
• Click Download Blog
• At the bottom to the left of the page there will be a rectangle box showing your blog downloading. Next to that (in the box) is a tiny arrow pointing down. Click on it.
• Open where it says, Show in Folder
• It should open a page saying: blog and today's date.
• Now you can rename the file to anything you like.
• To find your file it should be under 'downloads'.
• Now you have everything saved to your computer. Just remember to back-up your computer!

The Chakra Diaries by Becca Chopra

The Chakra Diaries
by Becca Chopra
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Don't you often wonder about the lives of others in your yoga or dance class? What is the tubby woman at the back of the class really thinking? Does the lone man in his spandex clothes feel as stupid as he looks? Is the woman running the class as confident as she appears?

Well, even though the blurb of the Chakra Diaries reads like a self-help book it gives you a chance to dip into the lives of such characters including chubby but lovely Estella, abused Sarah and also including the narrator Rebecca who runs the new age spirituality (Chakra) classes. You also learn a great deal about the Hindu chakra practice and how it can affect/help your life.

The Chakra Diaries was extremely well written, and my only criticism is that I'd have liked more time to stay with the characters before it finished. Hopefully, the author Becca Chopra will write a sequel?

My favourite line in the book was: `Matt had no need to be a man, she had enough balls for both of them', which made me laugh, and you'll find plenty to laugh about with the Chakra Diaries. It is both funny and ponderous.

Read the interview of Crabbit Old Bat AKA Nicola Morgan

as she answers questions about her latest novel Wasted and her blog Help I Need a Publisher, and why she penned a non-fiction book called Write to be Published.

 

 NEWEST NOVEL: WASTED "Stroke of genius" - Cat Anderson, bookseller. "Outstanding!" - Vanessa Robertson, bookseller. "WOW!" - Nikki Heath, librarian

WASTED nominated for the Carnegie Medal

WEBSITE http://www.nicolamorgan.co.uk/

PUBLISHING BLOG http://www.helpineedapublisher.blogspot.com/

WRITE TO BE PUBLISHED WEBSITE  www.writetobepublished.co.uk

When did you get your first break into writing fiction? 

Well, I struggled and failed for many years. My first novel was published 21 years after I started trying! And the reason I got one published in the end was that I came up with an idea that worked - one that worked in storyline and language. (Before, it had all been about the language and I couldn't get the story right.). I don't think I was a rubbish writer before but I hadn't found a way of turning my love of words into story. It was really my memory of all that heartache combined with everything I learnt from my own experience and that of all the other writers who I came into contact with professionally during the last ten years that made me want to give advice to aspiring authors.

Little Guide to Unhip

book by 

Kate Rigby

Have you ever worried about not being quite hip enough?  Or maybe you are one of those who flaunts your unhipness with abandon?

Either way, The Little Unhip Guide is for you. Although it charts my own personal unhip top 50 with the likes of Gilbert O’Sullivan, Morris Dancing, Vicar of Dibley, Sanitary Towels (with wings), and the colour beige to name but a few, I picked those characters, characteristics, attributes or material objetcs with a universally unhip feeling to them.  Each is given an unhip rating up to five for you to keep a count of your own unhip rating, and some sections include a few personal anecdotes.  There is also a ‘bubbling under’ list for a further 14  unhip things not quite making the top 50. 

This book carries a warning: some readers may seriously dent their coolness if caught reading this material!

Kate Rigby has been been writing for over thirty years and has released many titles. Her latest is Little Guide to Unhip by Night Publishing. Little Guide to Unhip is a comedy lightly based on the author's own experiences as she blundered through her teen years to adulthood. Not targeted at any particular audience, but probably better suited to thirty-somethings plus due to the era of the novel. 

Maybe Kate's "unhipness" has abated because she penned a punk novel titled Fall  Of  The Flamingo Circus which was published by Allison and Busby and by Villard. It was reviewed in The Times and The Face. Since then she has seen Seaview Terrace and Sucka! published by Skrev Press and Break Point, and shorter works have appeared in Skrev's avant garde magazine Texts' Bones including a version of a satirical novella Lost The Plot. 

A poignant novel, Thalidomide Kid, was published by Bewrite Books which brings back the era of the 60s and 70s wonderfully, so if you're looking nostalgia as well as a tearjerker maybe that's the one to try.

Kate has many short stories published, and received a Southern Arts bursary for Where A Shadow Played (now renamed Œ Did You Whisper Back?), and Dancing In The Dark is an erotic anthology by Pfoxmoor Publishing.

Her novels tend to be character-driven and a bit quirky or gritty ­whether contemporary or retro ­and deal with issues of today: drugs abuse, homosexuality, neighbourhood conflicts, and a common theme is about the experience of being an outsider in society.

Titles now available on Kindle:

Little Guide to Unhip

Thalidomide Kid

Seaview Terrace

Break Point

Suckers n Scallies (formerly Sucka!)

Down The Tubes

Smashwords:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16648 - Little Guide to Unhip

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/45068 - Down The Tubes

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/43721 - Break Point

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/42991 - Seaview Terrace

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/50635 ­ Suckers n Scallies

 Kindle:

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Down-The-Tubes-ebook/dp/B004UC51NK - Down The Tubes

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004TNGRBU - Break Point

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004SV2DBG - Seaview Terrace

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Guide-Unhip-Kj-Rigby/dp/1452876983 -  Little Guide to Unhip

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004WTARYY ­ Suckers n Scallies

 http://www.amazon.com/Thalidomide-Kid-ebook/dp/B0046W6TDA -  Thalidomide Kid

Paperbacks:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thalidomide-Kid-Kate-Rigby/dp/tags-on-product

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Guide-Unhip-Kj-Rigby/dp/1452876983

http://www.skrevpress.com/index.php?p=2_12_Kate-Rigby

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0749000910/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk - Flamingo Circus  Anthology

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/39905 - Dancing In The Dark, where I have two stories

Website:

http://kjrbooks.yolasite.com/

http://bubbitybooks.blogspot.com/

For vampire lovers I bring you... ALERON

"I was born in the year 1791 in Alexandria, Egypt. The story of my becoming is NOW."

Aleron must cope with a timeless existence, seeing those he loves suffer the fate of mortality, while he remains cursed with eternal life. What if your immortal origin as well as others of your kind were hidden from you by the one you loved most; the one who gave you into a life of darkness and a lust for the sweetest nectar? These dilemmas and more face Aleron, but he must first learn to live, to survive, and most of all, to feed.

Seduced by the alluring vampire Mynea, Aleron learns what it truly means to be immortal as he adapts to his new life and new insatiable lust. She is teaching him to give her what her maker never has. She desires a new king and a new coven. Hearts, minds, and vampire souls intertwine as long kept secrets crawl out from the grave, refusing to remain buried beneath earth and lies. A blood kiss between them reveals a darker and even deadlier soul that has learned of Aleron’s blasphemous existence. Vlad is the beginning, the father of them all. Mynea must not let her young prince learn of her ancient king. Can a vampire truly love and trust another of his kind when their very lives depend on skillful deceit? 

Walking a thin line between life and death, Aleron is certain of one thing, if love is, then blood is.

The author Kane A. has followed the genre of fantastical creatures for as long as he could remember. Though a typical child and diligent student, his imagination never ceased to paint a surrealistic vision that could force many to question their own reality. Early on, Kane expressed his creativity by means of drawing, writing short stories ranging from science fiction to horror, as well as through poetry expressing love, hurt, and betrayal.

His fascination with the undead grew when he studied the history of the witch, werewolf, warlock, and sinking his teeth finally into the world of the vampire. Kane began his first of five novels detailing the lives and challenges of being immortal.

He now resides in Atlanta, GA where he spends the majority of his time writing.

Website: http://www.aleron.co/Aleron/Main.html

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/aleron11

Be Interviewed, and Be an Excellent Interviewee.

by Louise Wise

I've been asked why I have stopped interviewing authors. I haven't, I just charge now. The reason being is because my time was being taken up by a few authors who refused to play ball!


Basically, interviewing them was like sieving water from rock, and when I realised my time could be better spent writing I thought they could either pay me or go and have their egos fluffed up by some other sucker.


The amount of interviews that haven't been published to my blog is amazing, all because an author thought they were too grand to answer interview questions. The interviewees already on my blog, I must add, have been mostly fantastic. Some are now friends. 


One author (who shall remain anonymous) was short to the point of rude in her answers. I'm not a professional interviewer, neither are we on Piers Morgan Life Stories and the research I do for an author isn't, I admit, huge. I write an introduction for them and make a selection of questions based on their books, in return I expect the answers to be more than two syllable words and not as if they're being interviewed under sufferance!


ME: Tell us a little about your book *Too Good to be Interviewed?
Author: It's fiction.
Me (in a private email): Er, yes. But this is chance for you to give your personal slant on the book.
Me (interview question): Tell us a little about your book Too Good to be Interviewed?
Author: It's a fiction book.
Me: And your main character Troy, is he someone you'd like to meet?
Author: No, I'd not like to meet him because he is a figment of my imagination.
Me: Can we have a snippet of the book?
Author: All information can be found on my blog www.snootyauthor.com


Needless to say I didn't proceed with that interview. Another time I managed to bag, in my eyes, a successful author. Excitedly I made a list of questions I wanted to ask him; starting with a few conversation starters (or so I thought).


Me: *Am So Up Myself was written in the first person, wasn't it? How did you find that after writing so many books in the third person?
Author: I never wrote a book by that title. Get your facts right!


(I researched more and found out that the book was called "I" Am So Up Myself. My mistake. But researching my error cost me time, which obviously the bruised ego of the bristling author flourished beneath. I apologised by email, and then re-asked the question. The reply? If you'd researched me properly you'd know the answer! Aghhh! 
*Not real titles


I carried on with the interview, but it was never published because the answers were short to the point of rude, and I'm not that desperate to have authors on my blog if they all have that attitude!


Anyone remember Meg Ryan on Parky? Lord knows what she expected... red carpet? Fanfare? Now we all remember her for being snooty and abrupt instead of a fine actress.


Interviews are two-way. Be kind to your host, and they will respond in kind.


Author Justine Larbalestier blogged about interview etiquette, which tells the side of the interviewee and makes for interesting reading. A link to How to Interview An Author is also informative.


My favourite interviewees on Wise Words were Dr Rod Griffiths because he didn't mind me asking questions that weren't relevant to his book, Lloyd Kaneko because we  went totally off topic to discuss politics; it's sometimes nice to just chat and get to know the person, rather than the author, behind the book. Laura Vosika and Ann Swinfen because I became fascinated with their books and bought them. And friends I have made include Allan Mayer, Patti Hultstrand,Lynn North and Marc Nash to name just a few. Glyn Pope's interview brought some odd comments, Mary Tabor the most traffic - think it was the title, which proves that sex sells! And Leela Soma for not being shy in revealing all her writing tactics in her interview.