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!

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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!"

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…

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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

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!

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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.

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

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(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.)

_______________________________________________

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.

Halloween all year long!

*Image courtesy of author Brea Behn

Amy Wolf author of THE MISSES BRONTË'S ESTABLISHMENT

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.
Amy says:
1. Charlotte Brontë. Even though she had a life filled with tragedy, her ambition and perseverance tell me she could kick some serious butt.
2. Emily Bronte. Emily proved that she could kick butt: she once cauterized her own wound after having been bitten by a dog.
3. J.K. Rowling. I think she’d be fun to be around, and she has such a great imagination I believe she could outsmart those zombies.



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 ;)
Amy says: J. K.! I am a huge Potterhead and don’t care much for horror. I also think that J.K. could offer a more substantial reward. And invite me to live with her in her castle. (Can you say “wish fulfillment”?)



3. We authors are voracious readers. My TBR list is approximately 8 miles long. What are you currently reading?
Amy says: A fun book interviewing comics of all stripes, Poking a Dead Frog by Mike Sacks. Also finished an excerpt from The Girl With Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story by Hyeonseo Lee. Next up: A People’s History of the Great Recession by Arthur Delaney and The Second Intellient Species by Marshall Brain. You know, just some light “beach” reading with Fabio on the cover! :>



4. What is the one book that you could read a million times and never get bored with?
Amy says:Pride and Prejudice, baby!



5. Last year my favorite read was The Martian by Andy Weir. What was your best read of 2014?

Amy says: Sideways 3: Chile by my friend Rex Pickett.



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?
Amy says: The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene



7. You’re a writer by day and a superhero by night. (Take off those geeky glasses Superman) What’s your superpower?
Amy says: In fact, I’m a software developer by day and a writer by night. So my superpower is working two full-time jobs concurrently!



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?
Amy says: My dining room nook. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, and yes, it gives me lower back pain, but I have a nice view of lovely Northwest scenery.



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 Misses Brontes Establihsment.
Amy says: It’s the scene where the young heroine, Maria, pretends to be Emily Brontë on the sisters’ fabled trip to London to prove they were three different authors. In reality, Emily refused to go, but Maria does a bang-up impersonation laden with subtle comedy.



9. Sometimes a little too much of myself slips into my characters. Which one of your characters most resembles you?
Amy says: Charlotte Brontë. Like her, I’m hypersensitive, thin-skinned, and appreciate truth in Art, but I also have her ambition, never-say-die attitude, and nun-like dedication to her craft.



10. I’ve always got tunes rocking while I’m writing. Tell us five songs that are on your playlist.
Amy says: NONE! I can’t concentrate with music in the background. I am however fond of Guns N’ Roses, Marilyn Manson, and Ting Ting.



11. If you could tell an aspiring author one tiny tidbit of information, what would you say?
Amy says: DON’T! (kidding). Be prepared for the long haul. The arts ain’t easy, and they never have been. This is a tough game, so toughen up and be prepared to go the distance. I prepared by working for 15 years in the film industry. Do I win something?

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Amy Wolf is a Kindle Scout winner for her novel THE MISSES BRONTES ESTABLISHMENT, which launched on August 11, 2015.
She has published 38 short stories in the fantasy/sf press, including REALMS OF FANTASY (2) and INTERZONE (U.K.). She is a graduate of the Clarion West Writer's program and has an honors English degree from The University of London.
She started her career working for the major Hollywood studios, especially 20th Century Fox.
One of three natives out of 10 million, Amy was forced from L.A. and now lives in Seattle (where it rains). She has one adult daughter currently terrorizing L.A., 2 horses, 2 dogs, and a bunny.
Check out her blog on http://www.missesbrontes.com

*The promo below is not affiliated with Secret Life of a Townie book blog or M. R. Pritchard*

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