Secret life of a townie

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Today's Authtoberfest featured author is JOHN GREGORY HANCOCK!

1. It’s Halloween, pick 3 of your favorite writers to paint the town red with and tell us why you chose them.
John says: I'm assuming living, right ? although, its Halloween, so dead is within the realm. Okay, Living: Stephen King, Zoe Sharp, Clive Barker. Dead: Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft. And by "paint the town red" I mean "have a fantastic conversation with".

2. You’re ready to head out with your pillowcase to collect loads of confections on All Hallows’ Eve, what’s your costume and why did you choose it?
John says: George Clooney, because then my wife will love me. :)

3. Old Mrs. Robinson opens her door and you’re holding open your pillowcase patiently waiting. “Oh deary,” she says in her frail, little old-lady voice. “I forgot it was Halloween. Don’t know why you kids go begging anyways. Let me go find something to give you.” She shuffles off and finally returns three and a half minutes later with 5 pennies, 2 peppermint candies that look like they went through the dryer, and her deceased husbands dentures. “Take what you like,” she offers, squinting at you.
What do you choose and why.
John says: Dentures. always pick dentures. Unless you can be batman, then be batman picking dentures.

4. I really love reading Dean Koontz but some of his stuff scares the bejesus out of me. What’s the spookiest book you’ve ever read?
John says: Well, the book that most creeped me out the most was The Exorcist, because I read it when I was eleven, the only person in the house at night , during a crashing thunderstorm with no electricity and reading it with a flashlight. I should mention this was before the movie came out. My imagination was much, much worse than what Blatty came up with, trust me.

5. You’re a writer by day and supernatural creature by night. (Shed that human skin you sack of bones) What are you and why?
John says: Always be a werewolf. Howling at the moon has to be invigorating. Feasting on the blood of your enemies only more so.

6. Every author has a bookshelf filled with his or her favorite reads. Run on over to yours and tell us the scariest book you have.
John says: The 30 lb. leather covered oversized 150 year old bible with my ancestor's names scrawled in the front. If that isn't the beginning of a great horror story, I don't know what is.

7. We don’t all write horror but there comes a time when you’ve got to surprise your readers and make sure their hearts are still beating. How do you prepare yourself to get in the spooky writing mood?
John says: For my book crawlspace, there is a scene where Ethan is trapped inside an MRI that is too small for him. This happened to me. Writing this scene was reliving it, I was covered in clammy sweat when I finished writing it. I was not born claustrophobic, but since being trapped in a tube and dropping my panic button, unable to breathe, is why I am now.

8. Stephen King’s front porch light is on but there are no Halloween decorations.
Do you:
a) trick-or-treat and cross your fingers that he’s handing out the good stuff
b) run screaming
c) call your mom to bring your favorite King paperback and beg for an autograph
John says: D: break in a side window and start making pig noises.

9. Congratulations, you just won the literary lottery and sold a million books at full price! The royalty check clears on October 28th. What are you buying for the neighborhood kids?
a) an assortment of mini candybars
b) an assortment of cheap, hard candies
c) full size Hershey bars
John says: Nothing. Those neighbor kids didn't write the book for me. And they should get off of my lawn!

10. Your writer friend calls you with some frightening news. They’re giving up on writing, can’t take the pressure any longer. What do you tell them?
John says: If I'm truly a friend, I'll support them no matter what they decide. But if I'm a fellow writer in a horror story, I will tape them to a chair and make them use dictating software to write book 4, dammit because I've waited long enough.

Connect with John Gregory Hancock!

Author Bio:

John Gregory Hancock is a storyteller.
A graphic professional for many years (which is one way to tell a story), his graphic journalism garnered international awards, and was nominated for a Pulitzer. He incorporates his visual sense in his ability to spin compelling yarns.
Currently, he has seven books of his own, and has written for The Future Chronicles anthology series, whose titles have hit the overall Amazon Top 10 Bestsellers list. The Immortality Chronicles - a Top 5 SF Anthology and Hot New Release - featured his story 'The Antares Cigar Shoppe', which was also nominated for Best American Science Fiction.
His work has appeared in other anthologies, including; Prep For Doom, Bite-Sized Offerings: Tales & Legends of the Zombie Apocalypse, Flying Toasters - The DeadPixel Tales, and Off the Kuf.
Hancock is not tied to any one genre, but is comfortable in the science fiction/fantasy/horror realm. Even a dash of humor, at times. The foreword to his 'A Plague of Dreams' says it well:
"These stories, these lies, these Dreamwood Tales, are dipped in the heady ink of my fevered dreams. They travel unique and varied paths to arrive at your shuttered door. I entreat you to undo the latch and let them in to lie upon your hearth. They will not bite. Except for the ones that do."
He lives with his wife and soul mate (who puts up with him, beyond all logic) and a fantastically brilliant son (who thrashes him soundly in video games -- really, it's no contest). They are hopelessly landlocked in Midwest America, far from ocean or desert. Or glacier, come to that.
Like many of his characters, life has shaped and unshaped him.
His fingers itch to write and so far, luckily, people seem to enjoy the things he offers.

______________________

Other Titles by John Gregory Hancock:

Monday, October 5, 2015

Today's Authtoberfest featured author is PETER CAWDRON!

Peter Cawdron is a super awesome dude. He wrote this great book, 'What We Left Behind,' that puts a whole new spin on zombie origins. You all should read it. I would have flown down under to interview him in person but I'm afraid of spiders. So I sent him 37 emails. Let's see what Peter had to say about reading, writing and zombies!

1. It’s the zombie apocalypse and writers have got to stick together to survive. Pick 3 authors to be on your zombie apocalypse killing team and tell us why you’d choose them.
Peter says: Max Brooks, because between World War Z and the Zombie Survival Guide, he’s clearly thought about how to survive in the zombie apocalypse.
Andy Weir, author of The Martian. If we get trapped in a building, he’ll figure out how to science the shit out of the situation. At the very worst, we’ll be eating potatoes for the next decade.
Richard Preston, author of Demon in the Freezer, because seriously, smallpox makes the zombie virus look lame by comparison. Most fictional zombie outbreaks have an R(0) value or reproduction value of 1-2 (being largely based on the R(0) value of rabies which is also spread by bites), whereas at it height, smallpox had an R(0) value of between 11-18. Smallpox was contagious on a level zombie writers don’t even dare imagine, and it was utterly devastating, and yet humanity defeated it. Richard documents concepts such as ring-fencing infected areas in his book, so he’d be a great addition to the team.
Meredith says: I think this is the best group so far! You've included all of my favorite authors! And I loved Demon in the Freezer. What a great book. The biochemist in me devoured that in two days.

2. If Stephen King and J. K. Rowling were drowning in a river, who would you save first? And now you have to tell us why.
Peter says: As much as I love Stephen King’s writing, I’d have to go with J.K. because she came out of obscurity to write novels that stirred a generation and got kids reading for enjoyment again. As a writer, that’s my goal—to have people switch off TV, close down facebook, and forget Candy Crush for a while because they’re so engrossed in reading a novel.

3. We authors are voracious readers. My TBR list is approximately 8 miles long. What are you currently reading?
Peter says: I’m notorious for not finishing books. I started Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama in 2004 and I’m just over half way, and unfortunately the same is true for many a good novel on my kindle. I tend to devour autobiographies and real-life stories (like Richard Preston’s Demon in the Freezer), but it’s a rare fictional book (like World War Z and the Martian) that keeps me flicking pages until the very end.
At the moment, I have four anthologies from the Future Chronicles series on my Kindle, and the Immortality Chronicle is about to drop later this month. I thoroughly enjoy these as they’re short stories, giving me a broad exposure to a variety of writers, and they’re bite size, which suits my reading style.

4. What is the one book that you could read a million times and never get bored with?
Peter says: Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man. They’re tough to read, as they were written in the 1800s, but they’re remarkably insightful. I’ve read both of them twice, and still marvel at how far ahead of their time they were. Anything by Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins quickly falls into a similar category.

5. Last year my favorite read was The Martian by Andy Weir. What was your best read of 2014?
Peter says: I loved The Martian. Well, I hated the monotonous deliberation over potatoes, but once the book got beyond that point, it was engrossing.
My favorite read from last year was Eleanor by Jason Gurley. I had the opportunity to read an early draft, and then a little later the independently published version before it was picked up and re-edited/expanded, so I’m looking forward to reading it a third time when it is re-released in 2016. The writing is solid. Jason’s characterization is brilliant. For me, the mark of a good book is when I forget I’m reading and become engrossed in the characters and the situations they’re facing. Eleanor did that for me.

6. This year my favorite read has been The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. What’s the best book you’ve read so far in 2015?
Peter says: Nomad by Matthew Mather, as it’s a gritty, realistic look at what would happen if a relatively small black hole were to pass through the solar system. At first, such a concept seems absurd, but Matthew paces the book really well and weaves in actual science. His afterword describes how similar celestial intrusions have happened in the past, making it more plausible than I’d like.

7. You’re a writer by day and a superhero by night. (Take off those geeky glasses Superman) What’s your superpower?
Peter says: Oh, I think superpowers are overrated. Everyone loves the Avengers, X-Men and Superman, etc, but the real superpower is intelligence. As a species, we’ve spent thousands of years trying to solve problems with sheer might, but it was only when we started to use brain power that we made some serious progress. The scientific revolution lifted us out of the Dark Ages, blitzed diseases such as Polio and Smallpox, and just a few years ago, Australian researchers developed a vaccine against cervical cancer. Just think how incredible that is… we can prevent a form of cancer from ever occurring! To me, that’s cooler than x-ray vision or flying through the air. And hey, we do fly through the air (in metal cylinders). So I’m with Andy Weir when it comes to things like cancer, let’s “science the shit out of this.”

8. I have writing spots all over my house: my desk, my couch, the patio, and my bed. Where’s your favorite spot to write?
Peter says: At a desk in my bedroom. Boring, I know, but with some soft music playing, it works for me. As for editing and revising, that mostly occurs on an iPad while I’m on the bus going to and from work.

9. We’re supposed to love all of our children equally, but there are some scenes I’ve written that really stick out in my mind. Tell us your favorite scene from one of your books.
Peter says: Zombie bowling… In the novel What We Left Behind, the main characters are faced with hundreds of zombies converging on them, plodding up a hill. And at the time, I didn’t know how I was going to write them out of trouble. So I stopped and thought. What could they use around them. Hey, what about rolling cars down the hill into the zombie horde? And after a few gutter balls, they start collecting strikes. Good clean zombie killing fun :)

10. Sometimes a little too much of myself slips into my characters. Which one of your characters most resembles you?
Peter says: Kane, a bad guy from my novel The Road to Hell. He struggles with the conflict between loyalty and honesty, eventually realizing that loyalty is not such an admirable trait after all. As much as loyalty is lauded in society, real moral strength comes from honesty. And that’s something I personally had to learn in life. In the right context, loyalty is a wonderful attribute, but honesty always trump loyalty.

11. I’ve always got tunes rocking while I’m writing. Tell us five songs that are on your playlist.
Peter says: Rather than individual songs, I hope you’ll allow me to talk about albums, as songs are too short by themselves when writing. Depending on my mood, I enjoy writing to anything from Green Day’s American Idiot to Norah Jones Come Away With Me. Yeah, not the most consistent of music collections, huh? I also enjoy the live albums of David Bowie, John Mayer and Elton John (there’s 8-9 minute version of Rocket Man that is out of this world)
Meredith says: It's like the playlist gods parted a soul and I got half and you got half. I love that version of Rocket Man. And my John Mayer live albums are always on repeat, "Where the Light is: Live in Los Angeles" is my absolute favorite album to listen to.

12. If you could tell an aspiring author one tiny tidbit of information, what would you say?
Peter says: Set realistic expectations, and keep them. Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. Writers are exposed by their writing, and so critical reviews can be tough to take, but keep learning, keep growing as a writer, keep looking for how you can improve, and pace yourself. Write because you love to write, and everything else will fall in place.

Peter says: Thank you for having me on your blog, Meredith. Happy reading & writing.
Meredith says: Thanks Peter! I love your writing. If you haven't read any of Peter's books, you should! Follow the Amazon Author link below and read a few.

Connect with Peter

(This is Peter. He's a cool guy)

________________________________________________

About the author:

Peter is an Australian science fiction writer, specialising in hard science fiction.

Hard science fiction is a misnomer as far as categories of literature go, as it sounds harsh and difficult to understand, but that is far from reality. Hard science fiction is simply plausible science fiction, fiction that is written in such a way as it conforms to the known laws of science, and that makes it more interesting, as there's no magic wand the protagonist can wave to get out of trouble. Peter's forays into hard science fiction could best be described as informative science fiction or enjoyable science fiction.

Peter is a fan of such classic science fiction writers as Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Crichton and their influence on his style and story lines is readily apparent. You can follow Peter on Facebook or Twitter or find him posting some interesting tibit on his blog http://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Today's Authtoberfest featured author is Lindsey Winsemius

1. It’s the zombie apocalypse and writers have got to stick together to survive. Pick 3 authors to be on your zombie apocalypse killing team and tell us why you’d choose them.
Lindsey says: Max Brooks; he's got the big picture concept of what's going to happen in the world. Jaq C. Reed; she's going to keep us positive when we're about to lose all hope. Robert Swartwood; he knows what the Zombies are thinking...

2. If Stephen King and J. K. Rowling were drowning in a river, who would you save first? And now you have to tell us why.
Lindsey says: Neither; less competition for the rest of us. Just kidding. They wouldn't need help; they are both creative genius' and could save themselves. They'd probably end up rescuing me...

3. We authors are voracious readers. My TBR list is approximately 8 miles long. What are you currently reading?
Lindsey says: I am just about to sit down and begin One Second After by William R. Forstchen (I know, I can't believe I haven't read it yet, either). It has been on my list for awhile, and I finally loaded it onto my kindle.

4. What is the one book that you could read a million times and never get bored with?
Lindsey says: Don't tell, but while I am totally addicted to Post-Apoc / Dystopian / Futuristic Sci Fi, my first love is romance. I have probably read Lisa Kleypas' Blue Eyed Devil at least thirty times. Although, Max Brooks' World War Z is a close second.

5. Last year my favorite read was The Martian by Andy Weir. What was your best read of 2014?
Lindsey says: I need to remember all the way back to 2014? Hmm. Daryl Banner's excellent post-apoc The Beautiful Dead was hilarious and so creative, I almost cried when he announced he was following it up with a sequel (or two) which are now the Beautiful Dead series, all phenomenal reads.

6. This year my favorite read has been The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. What’s the best book you’ve read so far in 2015?
Lindsey says: While I've read some really excellent books, like Kaitlyn Davis' The Shadow Soul, I think I might have to go with Jaq C. Reed's The Ungoverned as my fav. While it was her debut novel, it was a strong book with a great environmental angle that I loved and I think we can all relate to.

7. You’re a writer by day and a superhero by night. (Take off those geeky glasses Superman) What’s your superpower?
Lindsey says: I go by the name of Supermom; I don't need to sleep. Apparently ;) My second choice? I've always envied Matilda the power to move things with her mind.

8. I have writing spots all over my house: my desk, my couch, the patio, and my bed. Where’s your favorite spot to write?
Lindsey says: I feel like I should say something exciting like the beach (which is a great place to write, but I get so distracted) or a local tea shop (which is also nice, but the Internet can be too spotty for research), so my favorite place is in my home office at my desk. With a window cracked, my music on, and a glass of wine...

9. We’re supposed to love all of our children equally, but there are some scenes I’ve written that really stick out in my mind. Tell us your favorite scene from your book Reaper.
Lindsey says: I think I had the most fun writing the scene where Aerina and Marcus, my main characters, head "outside" of their carefully protected city-state and do some really fantastic off-roading over the mountainous terrain to get to the outpost towns. It reminded me of my adventurous youth...

10. Sometimes a little too much of myself slips into my characters. Which one of your characters most resembles you?
Lindsey says: I have two characters that both share equally my traits: My main character, Aerina, who is too opinionated and tends to offend people, and is also a little too worried about fitting in; and also Lina, a secondary character (and the star of my current book in progress) who is a pleaser, and tends to be nervous about trying new things. I love to write my characters overcoming the weaknesses I find in myself and struggle to overcome. But dang them, it is always so easy for them...

11. I’ve always got tunes rocking while I’m writing. Tell us five songs that are on your playlist.
Lindsey says: Yes! I was hoping for this question. I love to create soundtracks for my books. Reaper always included Bastille's Pompeii, Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men, Imagine Dragons' Radioactive, Avicii's Wake Me Up, and Ella Henderson's Ghost.

12. If you could tell an aspiring author one tiny tidbit of information, what would you say?
Lindsey says: Can I pick two things? 1) Don't worry too much what other people think. It can be so tough to put your book out there, with your whole heart in it, and hear negative feedback or even crickets. This brings me to my second thing: 2) Be tenacious. Don't give up because you only sell three copies of your first book. Keep marketing, keep promoting, and KEEP WRITING! And I hope to hell you enjoy it all, because it might be awhile before you make any money from it.

Connect with Lindsey!

About the Author:

Lindsey Winsemius learned from a young age that books hold the key to new worlds. As a young adult, she was often caught with forbidden romance novels under her mattress.

After studying Psychology and Anthropology at Michigan State University, Lindsey began working as an editor and marketer. Her passion for reading has led her to become part of an initiative to promote independent authors and literacy called Frantic Froggy. She lives in Grand Haven, Michigan with her husband and two young children. She is often at the beach with a book, or making up stories featuring her children.

"Writing about myself is much more difficult than writing a novel. It is easy to craft characters. I'm still learning about myself.

I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. In the meantime, I keep busy taking care of my husband and two children in West Michigan. I enjoy short summers on the lake and survive the long winters by hibernating inside, dreaming up stories. Some of which I actually write.

I'm a freelance editor, a part-time digital marketer, and full-time supermom. I'm very passionate about education, literacy, and supporting independent authors, which is why I am part of FranticFroggy.com.

Connect with me on social media or join my mailing list to keep in touch!"

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Today's Authtoberfest featured author is Carol Davis!

Let's see what Carol had to say about reading, writing and All Hallows' Eve!

1. It’s Halloween. Pick 3 of your favorite writer buddies to paint the town red with and tell us why you chose them.
Carol says: Actually there are only two I’d pick: Debbie and Beki. They’re the ones I go to Vegas with, the ones I hit fan conventions with – the ones who “get” me and my crazy emotional introverted fangirl writer life. They’re the ones I can laugh with, or not laugh with; the ones who are always there with a hug when I need it. I can brainstorm new stories with them and know I’ll get help I can actually use. They’re my teammates, more so than anyone else I know. The only downside is, we all live in different states. Oh… and as far as “painting the town red” on Halloween – we’d probably be curled up in front of the TV with a big pile of snacks, watching our favorite episodes of Supernatural.
Meredith says: I LOVE Supernatural!!

2. You’re ready to head out with your pillowcase to collect loads of confections on All Hallows’ Eve. What’s your costume and why did you choose it?
Carol says: I have a mental picture of myself dressed as Elsa from Frozen… and looking good enough that I won’t scare little kids. (Heh.) But since this is the real world (and assuming I could find a decent seamstress) I’d probably go in Starfleet uniform. Star Trek opened the door to my first sales as a writer, gave me a chance to work in Hollywood, and it’ll always have a place in my writerly heart. Beyond that – in the world of Trek, they don’t much care if you don’t look like Elsa from Frozen.

3. Old Mrs. Robinson opens her door and you’re holding open your pillowcase, patiently waiting. “Oh, deary,” she says in her frail, little old lady voice. “I forgot it was Halloween. Don’t know why you kids go begging, anyway. Let me go find something to give you.” She shuffles off and finally returns three and a half minutes later with 5 pennies, 2 peppermint candies that look like they went through the dryer, and her deceased husband’s dentures. “Take what you like,” she offers, squinting at you. What do you choose and why?
Carol says: The money. Always go with the money! No, seriously… if she’s an old woman, there might well be a rare coin in amongst those 5 pennies. You might end up with a 1943 copper that’s worth $80,000.
Meredith says: That would be awesome!

4. I really love reading Dean Koontz, but some of his stuff scares the bejesus out of me. What’s the spookiest book you’ve ever read?
Carol says: Books don’t generally scare me (which, yes, is an odd thing for a horror writer to say). I’m a very visual person – very affected by sight, sound, overall mood. Koontz tells some terrific stories, as does my lifelong favorite writer, Stephen King, but I can’t honestly say they scare me. What scared me the most was a 1980s movie called The Entity. I saw it alone in the theater at night, and it freaked me out so much I couldn’t go home. I had to go across the road to The Empire Strikes Back and detox before I could consider being home by myself in the dark.

5. You’re a writer by day and a supernatural creature by night. (Shed that human skin, you sack of bones.) What are you and why?
Carol says: Something that’s very ethereal, I think – something that can run, and fly, and slip through small spaces. Sometimes I feel very hemmed in by the limitations of my body, and I think it would be freeing to be “a wisp of air and smoke.”

6. Every author has a bookshelf filled with his or her favorite reads. Run on over to yours and tell us the scariest book you have.
Carol says: I’ve got an entire bookcase filled with Stephen King’s books, all in hardcover. He’s my guru, my Jedi master – the best storyteller I can point to, bar none. As I mentioned above, his books don’t honestly scare me because I’m too dependent on sight, sound, smell and so on. But a fair number of other people seem to be pretty spooked by The Shining, so I’ll go with that one. Dead women in the bathtub, creepy little-kid ghosts, a dad who comes after you with an axe… That’s got to hit all the buttons.

7. We don’t all write horror but there comes a time when you’ve got to surprise your readers and make sure their hearts are still beating. How do you prepare yourself to get in the spooky writing mood?
Carol says: Actually, it’s like writing anything else – you have to figure out mood and pacing. What images do you need to set up? What’s going on in the background? I’m a very visual person, so I parse out what’s there “on screen” as if I were creating a painting, filling in the details as I go.
Oh, and add some blood. ;)

8. Stephen King’s front porch light is on but there are no Halloween decorations.
Do you:
a) trick-or-treat and cross your fingers that he’s handing out the good stuff
b) run screaming
c) call your mom to bring your favorite King paperback and beg for an autograph
Carol says: If I happen to be with my Musketeers (scroll back up to question #1), I suspect we’ll be ringing the doorbell and hoping not only for good candy, but the chance to shake the man’s hand and hang out for a minute. Hoping too that I could remain coherent enough to say a few words. After all, he’s The Man, and you can’t squander a chance like that. Though I suspect he’s the one who runs screaming from trick-or-treaters! He’s probably had about 85 billion of them show up at his house.

9. Congratulations, you just won the literary lottery and sold a million books at full price! The royalty check clears on October 28th. What are you buying for the neighborhood kids?
a) an assortment of mini candybars
b) an assortment of cheap, hard candies
c) full size Hershey bars
Carol says: That’s thinking kind of small, isn’t it? I’d throw them a party. Music, costumes, apple-bobbing, games. A full-on haunted house thing. Candy and cookies and cake. Maybe some grownups who went all-out with their costumes doing a bit of role-playing. A magic show. Give ’em something to remember!

10. Your writer friend calls you with some frightening news. They’re giving up on writing, can’t take the pressure any longer. What do you tell them?
Carol says: The same thing I tell myself when I run into a wall: give yourself a break. I always think of my mind as a sort of story-generating blender. If you don’t fill it up, nothing comes out. So go live your life. Read. Watch TV and movies. Watch and listen to other people. Fill the well up with material – ideas for scenes, people’s voices, snapshots of the things around you.
I think one of the worst things that’s happening these days is the rush to Publish All The Things. A book a month, or (heaven forbid) 5 books a month. Writers seem to grow very accustomed to big paychecks very quickly, and if there’s a bump in the road, they panic. The same thing happens if they force themselves to write stories that mean nothing to them – writing in a genre they don’t like, or trying to write too much, just for the money. To my mind that just makes you a shill. Do what you love. Live your best life, and tell stories. Don’t let it kill you. Live with good intentions, and write with joy. You may not make the big bucks, but you’ll rest easier at night.
Unless there’s something with big, sharp claws scratching at your window…

Connect with Carol!

BIO:

Picture an 11-year-old girl with pen in hand, spiral notebook in her lap. That was me, back in the beginning: a shy little girl with glasses, who wanted more stories about her favorite characters...so she wrote them.

And nothing ever really changes.

What's been most important to me throughout my life is FAMILY, and that's what I write about - whether the story involves a couple of investigative reporters digging into a series of mysterious drownings, or a young girl who discovers that her colony's alien "staff" is being mistreated and killed, or a harried woman searching for "something simple." It all comes down to FAMILY, the one we're born with, and the ones we build through marriage, friendship, and shared experiences.

I was a secretary for 38 years. Now I'm a full-time writer and editor. I work on a laptop, but at heart I'm still a little girl with a pen who's anxious to share her stories.

My blog: http://caroldavisauthor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caroldavisauthor

Twitter: @caroldficwriter)

E-mail: ficwriter1966cd@gmail.com

Friday, October 2, 2015

Today's Authtoberfest featured author is Jeff Seymour!

1. It’s Halloween, pick 3 of your favorite writers to paint the town red with and tell us why you chose them.
Jeff Says: Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book is probably my favorite Halloween book. Spooky but not terrifying, full of ghosts and ghouls, and a fun and easy read.
Stephen King: The master, obviously. You really can't go wrong with his stuff.
Gris Grimly: Okay, so he's an artist. But his illustrated Frankenstein is an amazing Halloween read.

2. You’re ready to head out with your pillowcase to collect loads of confections on All Hallows’ Eve, what’s your costume and why did you choose it?
Jeff Says: Vash the Stampede, from the anime Trigun. Such a great character. Such a cool costume. Someday I'll actually make one.

3. Old Mrs. Robinson opens her door and you’re holding open your pillowcase patiently waiting. “Oh deary,” she says in her frail, little old-lady voice. “I forgot it was Halloween. Don’t know why you kids go begging anyways. Let me go find something to give you.” She shuffles off and finally returns three and a half minutes later with 5 pennies, 2 peppermint candies that look like they went through the dryer, and her deceased husbands dentures. “Take what you like,” she offers, squinting at you.
What do you choose and why.
Jeff Says: The pennies. There's nothing quite like snapping them at your friends all unexpected-like.

4. I really love reading Dean Koontz but some of his stuff scares the bejesus out of me. What’s the spookiest book you’ve ever read?
Jeff Says: Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King. Couldn't finish it. Supernatural horror I can handle, but the real stuff---where the situations are completely realistic and the horror comes from the depravity of unhinged human minds---is positively gutwrenching.
Meredith says: I read it, was thoroughly disturbed.

5. You’re a writer by day and supernatural creature by night. (Shed that human skin you sack of bones) What are you and why?
Jeff Says: I suppose I'd be a troll---the old Norse kind. I think living in the mountains, rumbling around them at night, and then sleeping inside them during the day sounds like a pretty nice existence.

6. Every author has a bookshelf filled with his or her favorite reads. Run on over to yours and tell us the scariest book you have.
Jeff Says: Full Dark, No Stars again. Someday I'll go back and finish it.

7. We don’t all write horror but there comes a time when you’ve got to surprise your readers and make sure their hearts are still beating. How do you prepare yourself to get in the spooky writing mood?
Jeff Says:The first paragraph. Horror is all about voice and atmosphere to me. Once I've set it, the rest flows naturally.

8. Stephen King’s front porch light is on but there are no Halloween decorations.
Do you:
a) trick-or-treat and cross your fingers that he’s handing out the good stuff
b) run screaming
c) call your mom to bring your favorite King paperback and beg for an autograph
Jeff Says: a) I wouldn't like to bother him, but I'd still knock on his door if I had a decent excuse to. Besides, I'd like to know how he approaches Halloween.

9. Congratulations, you just won the literary lottery and sold a million books at full price! The royalty check clears on October 28th. What are you buying for the neighborhood kids?
a) an assortment of mini candybars
b) an assortment of cheap, hard candies
c) full size Hershey bars
Jeff Says: c) There was a dentist in my neighborhood growing up who gave out full-size candy bars (suspicious, now that I think about it...). That feeling of hitting the jackpot is one I'd love to pass on.

10. Your writer friend calls you with some frightening news. They’re giving up on writing, can’t take the pressure any longer. What do you tell them?
Jeff Says: Call it a break. It's important to take care of yourself and set a pace you can handle, but there's no reason to say you're giving up forever. Forever is a long time.

Connect with Jeff!

Author, writer, and editor Jeff Seymour has been creating speculative fiction since he was a teenager. He is the author of the magical realist short story collection Three Dances and the epic fantasy series Soulwoven, which has netted him over a million reads and 14,000 followers online. Jeff has also edited sci-fi and fantasy on a freelance basis for clients including Harlequin's digital-first imprint Carina Press and the Nelson Literary Agency Digital Liaison Platform. In his free time, he blogs about his writing and editing, pretends he knows anything about raising an energetic kitten, and dreams.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Today's Authtoberfest featured author is Peter Heller author of THE DOG STARS and other awesome books!

I came across 'The Dog Stars' one day while doing an author event at a nearby Barnes&Noble. This book was on the discount shelf. I kept picking it up, reading a few pages and setting it down. Finally I splurged and bought the hardcover before leaving. 'The Dog Stars' was a great read, poetic and perfectly paced. I really really loved it.

Let's see what Peter had to say about reading, writing and zombies!

1. It’s the zombie apocalypse and writers have got to stick together to survive. Pick 3 authors to be on your zombie apocalypse killing team and tell us why you’d choose them.
Peter says: Denis Johnson. Because he’s a crazy f**ker and if he has as much energy as his fiction he’d be a nonstop killing machine. C.D. Wright, the poet. She’s a truthteller, very brave. She’d wade in with a bat if you were in trouble. Stephen King, of course. Anybody who has written that many books about scary crap has superhuman stamina and is pretty much afraid of nothing.

2. If Stephen King and J. K. Rowling were drowning in a river, who would you save first? And now you have to tell us why.
Peter says: Oh, here he is, again, drowning now. Well, they would save each other. The river is actually the liquid incarnation of King’s dead infant identical twin, and Rowling would trick the evil imp into running up onto the shore by offering him a scholarship to Hogwarts and a synopsis of Book Eight.
Meredith says: Best response I have ever received for that question. Flat out.

3. We authors are voracious readers. My TBR list is approximately 8 miles long. What are you currently reading?
Peter says: Vila-Matas, The Illogic of Kassel; Collected Poems of Robert Pinsky.

4. What is the one book that you could read a million times and never get bored with?
Peter says: Any of Rexroth’s translations of the Tang Dynasty poets; Poems of the Masters, trans. By Red Pine.

5. Last year my favorite read was The Martian by Andy Weir. What was your best read of 2014?
Peter says: The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by the Colombian Alvaro Mutis.

6. This year my favorite read has been The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. What’s the best book you’ve read so far in 2015?
Peter says: Hey, thanks! I am loving this latest Vila-Matas, mentioned above. He’s a genius. From Barcelona. Makes me want to move there.
Meredith says: :)

7. You’re a writer by day and a superhero by night. (Take off those geeky glasses Superman) What’s your superpower?
Peter says: I can drink as much coffee as I want and still sleep at night.

8. I have writing spots all over my house: my desk, my couch, the patio, and my bed. Where’s your favorite spot to write?
Peter says: Couch in local coffee shop.

9. We’re supposed to love all of our children equally, but there are some scenes I’ve written that really stick out in my mind. Tell us your favorite scene from your book The Dog Stars.
Peter says: It’s the one where Hig is heartbroken and walking out of the trees and across the sage plains pulling a kayak sled and he gets a call crackling on his radio from his gun-nut associate Bangley who is in a watchtower a mile away, and Bangley tells him that he is being followed by nine marauders. Tells Hig to walk forward calmly and to start singing and he will direct him.
Meredith says: I loved that scene! I think that was the first "oh crap, these dudes are in trouble" feeling I had when reading.

10. Sometimes a little too much of myself slips into my characters. Which one of your characters most resembles you?
Peter says: Hig is a lot like me. He loves what I love, shies away from what I shy from. Loves to fish, fly his plane, loves his dog Jasper. Poetry. Kind of a dreamer. But he is definitely not me: he is six-one and he can cook.

11. I’ve always got tunes rocking while I’m writing. Tell us five songs that are on your playlist.
Peter says: Rain. Thunder. Rain.
Meredith says: It's really the best 'song' to write to.

12. If you could tell an aspiring author one tiny tidbit of information, what would you say?
Peter says: Write a set amount of words every day. Every one. Pick an amount that you can get done with good energy and be very disciplined in not writing under or much over. But always stop in the middle of an exciting thought or scene. Write your quota and keep going a little longer if you have to, so you’re smack in the middle of something. Then make yourself stop. That way you can’t wake to jump out of bed and continue the next morning.

Connect with Peter Heller

Facebook

Goodreads

Amazon Author Page
Webpage

(Read about Peter Heller's life below and let me know afterwards if you also feel like you've done absolutely nothing for your entire existence.)

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About Peter Heller:

Peter Heller is a longtime contributor to NPR, a contributing editor at Outside Magazine and Men's Journal, and a frequent contributor to Businessweek. He is an award winning adventure writer and the author of four books of literary nonfiction. He lives in Denver. Heller was born and raised in New York. He attended high school in Vermont and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire where he became an outdoorsman and whitewater kayaker. He traveled the world as an expedition kayaker, writing about challenging descents in the Pamirs, the Tien Shan mountains, the Caucuses, Central America and Peru.At the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he received an MFA in fiction and poetry, he won a Michener fellowship for his epic poem "The Psalms of Malvine." He has worked as a dishwasher, construction worker, logger, offshore fisherman, kayak instructor, river guide, and world class pizza deliverer. Some of these stories can be found in Set Free in China, Sojourns on the Edge. In the winter of 2002 he joined, on the ground team, the most ambitious whitewater expedition in history as it made its way through the treacherous Tsangpo Gorge in Eastern Tibet. He chronicled what has been called The Last Great Adventure Prize for Outside, and in his book Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet's Tsangpo River.

The gorge -- three times deeper than the Grand Canyon -- is sacred to Buddhists, and is the inspiration for James Hilton's Shangri La. It is so deep there are tigers and leopards in the bottom and raging 25,000 foot peaks at the top, and so remote and difficult to traverse that a mythical waterfall, sought by explorers since Victorian times, was documented for the first time in 1998 by a team from National Geographic.

The book won a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, was number three on Entertainment Weekly's "Must List" of all pop culture, and a Denver Post review ranked it "up there with any adventure writing ever written."

In December, 2005, on assignment for National Geographic Adventure, he joined the crew of an eco-pirate ship belonging to the radical environmental group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as it sailed to Antarctica to hunt down and disrupt the Japanese whaling fleet.

The ship is all black, sails under a jolly Roger, and two days south of Tasmania the engineers came on deck and welded a big blade called the Can Opener to the bow--a weapon designed to gut the hulls of ships. In The Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World to Save the Planet's Largest Mammals, Heller recounts fierce gales, forty foot seas, rammings, near-sinkings, and a committed crew's clear-eyed willingness to die to save a whale. The book was published by Simon and Schuster's Free Press in September, 2007.

In the fall of 2007 Heller was invited by the team who made the acclaimed film The Cove to accompany them in a clandestine filming mission into the guarded dolphin-killing cove in Taiji, Japan. Heller paddled into the inlet with four other surfers while a pod of pilot whales was being slaughtered. He was outfitted with a helmet cam, and the terrible footage can be seen in the movie. The Cove went on to win an Academy Award. Heller wrote about the experience for Men's Journal.

Heller's most recent memoir, about surfing from California down the coast of Mexico, Kook: What Surfing Taught Me about Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave, was published by The Free Press in 2010. Can a man drop everything in the middle of his life, pick up a surfboard and, apprenticing himself to local masters, learn to ride a big, fast wave in six months? Can he learn to finally love and commit to someone else? Can he care for the oceans, which are in crisis? The answers are in. The book won a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, which called it a "powerful memoir...about love: of a woman, of living, of the sea." It also won the National Outdoor Book Award for Literature.

Heller's debut novel, The Dog Stars, is being published by Knopf in August, 2012. It will also be published by Headline Review in Great Britain and Australia, and Actes Sud in France.