Paul and Paula's Place: June 2012

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Indie Author Network - Rollout Blowout!!

Indie Author Network - Rollout Blowout!!

Come on over - tons of gifts for both readers and writers!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Authors soon on IAN and on Come In, Sit Down, Tell Us About...

Thursday June 14 2012:

When you’re tailing yourself, a part of you is bound to get trampled. There are issues in the marketing place I must attend to, and I see myself running to make them, only to get tripped and stomped into reality.

There are times in our life we seem to suffer from crisis to crisis. The only redeeming factor in keeping me sane is solutions seem to spring forth like mighty Oaks - sturdy enough for me to catch my breath before sprinting off again.

This past week has been an endurance trying week. A period of time where I’ve asked myself why? Why did I decide to do that, or that, or dear Lord, that? The simple answer to those thats is that, I hardly ever know enough to say, “No.”

I’ve always been a high achiever and am now coupled with several others with the same reach for the stars gene in helping hand techno blocks off to a master builder. In itself enough of a mission to accomplish without adding life issues, like jobs, or college, or sickness, or, well… don’t get me started.

For now – here are the names of our future guests. They are not listed in any particular order, but rather gathered to give to you, our readers. All of these authors are wonderful in their way and will not disappoint you when reading. These authors will be spotlighted when IAN reopens it portal.

Alan Deelightful Dale

Betsy Otter Thompson
Billy Bob Buttons

Christine Rimmer

Chris & Janet Morris

Erika M. Szabo

Gary a. Wilson

George Geisinger

Hamilar Omar

Kate Evangelista

Robert W. Walker

Steve Daniels

Stuart Ayris

Tim Sunderland

When the lights go out in IAN – I’ll be hanging over at my blog, Paul and Paula’s Place until IAN has it Rollover Blowout.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Mark Woodland on Come In, Sit Down, Tell Us About...

For you that are new, please read our intro now printed in Blue - for our returning guest feel free to jump to the text in black:

This blog is a meeting place for authors and others in the arts .... each week as others are directed to our door or just stumble on by, they come and leave information about themselves - telling about their new books or drawings or photos or to tell us about their new blogs. ****PLEASE be sure your comments are appearing on the latest most timely blog insuring your inclusion in the sending off to Google plus land at the end of the week.*****

Here is the link to Gwen’s site: http://indieauthornetwork.weebly.com/ , a site which I am closely affiliated.

As I am wont to say {as does Facebook}, our site is free to comment and share and always will be free. This is a great site to join and to become interactive with guest blogging. It gives you a chance to step out of your box and be whatever you wish.

Another blog that I have a close tie is CRYPTO and CO. Please pop over and check out all their pages.

I have been off doing business and my blogging, unfortunately, falls by the wayside. There is so much news to tell and swamping tends to cross eyes and brain fog off... so only a few links on today's news.

If we thought last month was busy, this month got off to a plunge into new adventures of editing, writing, publishing, promoting, and social interaction.

The Rain Cloud's Gift written for Children's Charities by our group The Peacock Writers' is on it's way to the NYC BOOK FAIR at the JACOB JAVIT'S CONVENTION CENTER. No mass books or signing, just books displayed for industry professionals, stars, editors, publicists, publishers, and acquisition teams for the movie industry. Gwenna D'Young has an Angel who was so impressed with the book, and has given us the money and backing to have the book appear in the line up. We are also in the process of releasing a full, pictures included, limited edition.

Our next book in this series will celebrate the fall season and we are recruiting writers {1 each} from India, Japan, and Philippines - America has Halloween and Thanksgiving, Great Britain has Guy Fawkes - we would like stories that reflect fall traditions or holidays for these other cultures as well. The stories would remain the sole property of the author and their use as a donation would only occur for the book collection for Children's Charities. The story is to be written on a level where a child could either read it or have it read to them - our age goal for readers is 0 through 12. Please contact me at https://www.facebook.com/paula.shene if interested in being considered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday June 9 2012 we have a fascinating man who does it all - do check out his links at the end of this interview with Mark Woodland ~

What inspired you to write?

-I think it's my native creativity looking for every outlet it can find. I'm also an actor, singer and musician, but in writing there are things that you can do that you simply can't do otherwise. Plus, you have full control over the process and result. Much of my inspiration comes from "real life", but more of it comes from "how life could be".

Do you have anyone you show manuscripts to and get advice from or are you a loner doing it all yourself?

-Mostly a loner at this point. It also depends greatly on which project it is. I'm very apt to share poetry and short stories, but reluctant with my book series, which is my main concern. I have shared excerpts (including on a web radio broadcast), but no one has gotten to read large portions of it yet. I just don't feel "ready", and I think it's because the series and the characters are so dear to me.

What genre do you normally write in? Also, is there a genre you've always wanted to write in, but don't feel you could pull it off?

-Book-wise, I'm deeply into a project that would fall into the fantasy category. Shorter pieces tend to be humorous, but my short stories and poetry also travel all over the place. I'd like to tackle non-fiction once. The category where I feel like I'd fall on my face in is romance. I've never really read a great deal of it (and, to be honest, a lot of it is just bad), and I'm unsure of whether or not I could capture the right qualities in a romance book. However, the book series is kind of changing my mind. There are romantic subplots, and I have so much backstory on some of the characters, they could merit books of their own. I guess I'm going to be trying, and I'll find out. I think that's a good thing.

Do you ever base your characters on people you know?

Definitely! Most often, they're based only in part on someone I know, who resonates with an important aspect of the character. Sometimes, I've broken them up into pieces and used them in the same storyline. I suppose the biggest "borrowing" that I've made is the main female character in the book series (called "The Price of Legend"). She is based greatly on someone I know, and much of what she says and does is consistent with her personality. The real person knows I'm doing it.

What advice would you give to someone who was just starting off in writing?

-Write your fingers off, and don't make the mistake I've made of stopping something or tossing it out because it's "not good enough". In EVERY art form or genre, you have to fight your way to technical skill and to master the fundamentals before you can create successfully. Save the work and learn from it. The other piece of advice: Always tell the truth of it.

Do your stories tend to have morals, or special messages, included within them?

-They tend more to leave the reader with questions they have to answer on their own. That's always something that is tackled in the story (especially the books), but I like to leave the reader to conclude for themselves what the answers are. For instance, the two large questions that the book series asks are 1) How far will one person go in the name of love?, and 2) What do you do when you find your soulmate, but he/she isn't what you expected?

This question was posed by a fellow author and I loved it so much I decided to throw it into the mix ~

Oh no! One of your characters has escaped. Luckily, I have caught them! I will interrogate them with the help of a lie detector.

Welcome!Take a seat, make yourself comfortable. You will be returning to your book once this is over. What's your name, where are you from and what is your role in the book?

-My name is Daphne O'Connor, and I'm from Captiva Island, Florida. My role? I'm the principal female character, and I have several goals. The first is to escape from the trap I find myself in against my doing and my will, but in the end I cannot. So I must go forward and try to find a way out. Second, I must deal with situations and people that I hate (at least, initially). Last, I have to find a way to deal with my terribly confused feelings of love for someone I shouldn't even like, and who represents so much of what I am not and don't want to be. I have so little control over all these things, don't know the answers, and don't know what I'm going to do about them. I think that my role, overall, is to find the truth. I just need to know.

Tell us why we would enjoy reading your books?

-I try to tell a good, compelling, and honest story. Perhaps the larger themes are familiar or archetypal, but it all lies with the characters. My greatest hope is that the reader will come to care about them as much as I do, and want to find out what happens to them next. I think that each of the major characters has something that can resonate with different kinds of people, and each of them has a flaw or need that people can relate to.

Links for books and/or sites

-Wow! I have too many that I can think of to possibly list them all ot choose the "best". I am on Goodreads and enjoy it (it'sunder my name, people can look me up); I love sharing about books and seeing what other people read and hearing what they think. I ought to write more reviews than I do... I've made a lot of friends there, readers and authors alike. Many authors have blog/personal sites that are great to read, and I must have links to a couple of hundred of them. Not only do you find out what work of theirs is out there, but you hear about what they have in development, read excerpts, see some of their shorter pieces of work, and you can learn a lot about how they market their work. Many of those finds came through Facebook, where I've been able to link up with many authors and publishers. If you make the effort, it can be a great networking tool.

Thanks for allowing me to participate!

Thank you Mark for granting the interview and for all you interested - check out Mark Woodland here:

Friday, June 8, 2012

Roy Mauritsen on Come In, Sit Down, Tell Us About

Today, Friday June 8 2012, we have Roy Mauritsen with us. He has told my favorite type of story... Let’s find out what that genre could be and why he has written ~

What inspired you to write?

I've always considered myself an artist and a creative type person. Every drawing tells a story, as the
artist is creating it (much like Bob Ross and his happy little bush stories), or as the viewer looks at it, and is inspired to attribute the image with their own story. So storytelling has always been mixed in the foundation.

The stories and writing actually started about 5th grade for me, about the time my friends and I started playing Dungeons & Dragons, this was back in the very early 80s. Through the years, and with the group of friends I had, it was a tremendously creative outlet, for artwork, stories and friendships I still have to this day.

Much of the inspiration for Shards Of The Glass Slipper has some influence from
those years and experiences.

Do you have anyone you show manuscripts to and get advice from or are you a loner doing it all yourself?

I've been told I'm a consummate storyteller, but a horrible writer, haha! That said, after I have the manuscript in what I feel is an excellent place, I will rely heavily on the review and editing process! As the creative storyteller, I'm often too close to the work to see things objectively anyway. I tend to focus on my strength in the creative aspects. Having some distance on it is expedient.

I leave it up to the professionals (editors) to focus the technical details. I have two or three editor types, and close friends who are happy to knock me down a peg! *Kidding* I value that kind of feedback though, and their insight and suggestions can be immensely helpful. The manuscript is always in a constant state of change right until the very end. I have beta readers I trust, and my ace in the hole is my wife - she's a highly skilled and busy professional editor and I only call upon her talents when I genuinely have to.

In the end though, it's just me and the keyboard, processing all the edits, corrections, changes, advice,
criticism and my own ideas. In that regard, I think every writer is inherently a loner. Creatively, I don't seek out advice, as I don't want to taint my own creative voice, It's my story, and it's the story I want to read. There is no shortage of opinions. There are a lot of people out there who will never write a novel themselves but will have plenty of advice on how they think you can't do it or how you should do it. I don't focus on that, it's been my experience that the only one that will care the most about your work is you.

What genre do you normally write in? Also, is there a genre you've always wanted to write in, but don't
feel you could pull it off?

Epic fantasy & Fairy tales are what I'm writing now. I wrote a short story entitled " Norman's Ark" for an upcoming Anthology (from Padwolf Publishing) called Apocalypse 13. It was a lot of fun to break away and write something modern day/urban fantasy for a change. I'm still trying to figure out if I've pulled off writing in the genre I have!

Do you ever base your characters on people you know?

The main character in the "Norman's Ark" short story in Apocalypse 13, and a lot of what he
goes through I pulled from my experiences. It turned out to be an intensely personal exploration.

What advice would you give to someone who was just starting off in writing?

You can't spellcheck a blank page. Get the story down. Write it. After that, you can go back and fix, but
you have to have something to start working with. Writing is tough and lonely, and for most of the process, there's no light at the end of the manuscript tunnel. Push through and don't give up. You might have spent years writing it, but it’s a waste of time only if you never finish it! No agent or publisher or editor, no one will care as much as you will about your own work. As smart as you think your manuscript is, it's not. Invest in
professional editing. If you choose to go the self publish route (and there's nothing wrong with that) do everything you can in your budget to make it the most professional; make it virtually indistinguishable from any traditionally published book - it goes a long away towards your reputation. Be humble.

Do your stories tend to have morals, or special messages, included within them?

Not intentionally, people tend to invest themselves in things and take away from stories what they want.
Although, I'm writing a short story now with characters that do have some pretty hardline stances on how we treat our oceans.

This question was posed by a fellow author, and I loved it so much I decided to throw it into the mix ~

Oh no! One of your characters has escaped. Luckily, I have caught them! I will interrogate them with the help of a lie detector.

Welcome!Take a seat, make yourself comfortable. You will be returning to your book once this is over.
What's your name, where are you from and what is your role in the book?

How dare you hold the royal ambassador of the sovereign realm of Wonderland against his will! When
Queen Alice hears that her ace liaison, the White Rabbit has been captured and interrogated, and for such a petty self serving thing as an author interview, she will send her entire army to extract me!

Fur and whiskers! Not to mention you've interrupted me on a (supposedly) diplomatic mission to deliver the terms of occupation while we negotiate the extradition of Jack Spriggins, the so called "hero" of the Beanstalk War, for trial regarding his crimes against Wonderland. That's if he survives the journey back of course, accidents have been known to happen. Not that I have a personal grudge against him or would know
anything about a coup d’etat against the Queen of Wonderland in all of this.

What you have done interviewer, is yet another flagrant violation of terms in the Fae-Wonderland treaty. To get this matter sorted, I must insist on a meeting with your queen… Queen Cinder, is it? That's what the subjects of the land call her. There are protocols to maintain, not that you would know of any such things. Now step aside, I'm afraid this delay has made me quite late. Good day to you, I say sternly. Good day, indeed.

Tell us why we would enjoy reading your books?

Fairy tales are getting pretty popular right now in film and television. The success of Once Upon A Time on ABC and Hollywood embracing almost two dozen fairy tale related movie projects over the next couple of years, I'm happy my book Shards of The Glass Slipper is out at this time. So if, you're a fan of fairy tales and epic fantasy adventure, I hope you'll like my book. Using an ensemble cast of fairy tale characters in an epic adventure quest it pulls a lot of details and reference, from well over a dozen fairy tales, taking one of the most recognizable fairy tale characters, Cinderella, and making her into a villainous evil queen was just the start! It's a fun read in the spirit of Dragonlance or The Hobbit.

Thank you for the interview, Roy.

Thank you, Paula - very much for your interest in my work!

Links for books and/or sites

Publisher http://padwolf.com

website: http://www.shardsoftheglassslipper.com

buy on amazon: (also available in paperback) http://www.amazon.com/Shards-The-Glass-Slipper-ebook/dp/B007V538QA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337276377&sr=8-1

Book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1w0-1QojUo

Music inspired by the book: http://www.amazon.com/Shards-Gene-Pool-Zombie/dp/B006JSXH84/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_img_in

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Anna L Walls on Come In, Sit Down, Tell Us About...

What inspired you to write?

Oddly enough it was getting a computer that started me on the road to write. I hadn't given it much thought before, not more than a few scratchings on some paper a time or two, and certainly nothing to be published - not even an inkling.

Do you have anyone you show manuscripts to and get advice from or are you a loner doing it all yourself?

I have to say I do it all myself. I search far and wide for any advice I can scrape together, but getting actual advice on a piece of my own work is extremely difficult to come by. Mostly I have tried my best to learn the tricks of the trade and apply it to the best of my ability, and then I rely on a professional editor for a final grooming.

What genre do you normally write in? Also, is there a genre you've always wanted to write in, but don't think you could pull it off?

I like to read and write fiction, and I love things that have a touch of magic in it. I'm not too comfortable with fairies and dragons etc., but that doesn't mean I won't tackle it sometime in the future. I already have an idea. Read about it here:http://annalwalls.blogspot.com/2010/11/writers-block-what-are-your-solutions.htm l

Do you ever base your characters on people you know?

Yes, I do, but most times it's only certain quirks or mannerisms I'll use. If I go any further, I request permission and then I ask a series of questions to make certain details correct. Probably only that person would be able to tell though. It still is fiction.

What advice would you give to someone who was just starting off in writing?

Write to your heart's content - the more the better - but also work exceptionally hard to learn how to do so well. It is the well written story that will weave it's way under a reader's skin.

Do your stories tend to have morals, or special messages, included within them?

I don't try for any particular moral, but I do like it when the hero wins out over the bad guy, or he gets the girl.

This question was posed by a fellow author, and I loved it so much I decided to throw it into the mix ~

Oh no! One of your characters has escaped. Luckily, I have caught them! I will interrogate them with the help of a lie detector.

Welcome!Take a seat, make yourself comfortable. You will be returning to your book once this is over. What's your name, where are you from and what is your role in the book?

Mmmuahahahaha - Ludwyn is my name and I'd see the color of your blood if that upstart usurper hadn't stolen my throne and my magic. I'll get him back. All I have to do is escape and recover my magic back, and then I'll see you all bleed.

Tell us why we would enjoy reading your books?

Oh I don't know. I can't please everyone, but I do think I weave a fairly decent story, if I venture to say so myself.

Links for books and/or sites
Amazon has my book KING BY RIGHT OF BLOOD AND MIGHT -http://www.amazon.com/King-Right-Blood-Might-ebook/dp/B0079W1BZU/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

- and I just discovered that they have added a nifty little feature where similar statements were lumped together with other reviewers who said much the same thing. For instance, four different reviewers said, "Gotta see the movie". I wish.
Also for the summer months of June through August I'm selling my book through my website - http://AnnaLWalls.weebly.com/

- During those months I can ship out books, and I'll be able to sign them

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Louis Bertrand Shalako on Come In, Sit Down, Tell Us About...

For you that are new, please read our intro now printed in Blue - for our returning guest feel free to jump to the text in black:

This blog is a meeting place for authors and others in the arts .... each week as others are directed to our door or just stumble on by, they come and leave information about themselves - telling about their new books or drawings or photos or to tell us about their new blogs. ****PLEASE be sure your comments are appearing on the latest most timely blog insuring your inclusion in the sending off to Google plus land at the end of the week.*****

Here is the link to Gwen’s site: http://indieauthornetwork.weebly.com/ , a site which I am closely affiliated.

As I am wont to say {as does Facebook}, our site is free to comment and share and always will be free. This is a great site to join and to become interactive with guest blogging. It gives you a chance to step out of your box and be whatever you wish.

Another blog that I have a close tie is CRYPTO and CO. Please pop over and check out all their pages.

I have been off doing business and my blogging, unfortunately, falls by the wayside. There is so much news to tell and swamping tends to cross eyes and brain fog off... so only a few links on today's news.

If we thought last month was busy, this month got off to a plunge into new adventures of editing, writing, publishing, promoting, and social interaction.

The Rain Cloud's Gift written for Children's Charities by our group The Peacock Writers' is on it's way to the NYC BOOK FAIR at the JACOB JAVIT'S CONVENTION CENTER. No mass books or signing, just books displayed for industry professionals, stars, editors, publicists, publishers, and acquisition teams for the movie industry. Gwenna D'Young has an Angel who was so impressed with the book, and has given us the money and backing to have the book appear in the line up. We are also in the process of releasing a full, pictures included, limited edition.

Our next book in this series will celebrate the fall season and we are recruiting writers {1 each} from India, Japan, and Philippines - America has Halloween and Thanksgiving, Great Britain has Guy Fawkes - we would like stories that reflect fall traditions or holidays for these other cultures as well. The stories would remain the sole property of the author and their use as a donation would only occur for the book collection for Children's Charities. The story is to be written on a level where a child could either read it or have it read to them - our age goal for readers is 0 through 12. Please contact me at https://www.facebook.com/paula.shene if interested in being considered.

Today, Wednesday June 6 2012 we have, as our guest, Louis Bertrand Shalako. I met Louis on Facebook and his interaction we our fellow authors led me to ask him for an interview.

What inspired you to write?

I always liked reading, and if you like something, sooner or later you want to do it yourself. As a kid, sports heroes weren’t my thing, although I wanted to drive Formula One and knew the names of all the drivers! But I liked it, so I wanted to do it. This holds true for a lot of people. Kids that love baseball want to grow up and become baseball players. Some would say that this is a kid who never grew up. That is not the way it is. When you meet someone like that later in life, no matter what field they’re in, this is a kid who grew up. I say that because they made a million sacrifices to do what they love—what they feel to be worthwhile and important. When I hit fifty
years old, I decided that now was the time. I’ve earned the right.

Do you have anyone you show manuscripts to and get advice from or are you a loner doing it all yourself?

No, but I don’t let it bother me too much. Beta readers take a lot of time. There is a turnaround time between sending something to them, and then they have to read it, more or less carefully, and then send it back. I’ve done it for another author, and three of us drove him a little bit batty. He was overwhelmed with all kinds of suggestions, criticisms and ideas. I always took a week to read a section and send it back.

What genre do you normally write in? Also, is there a genre you've always wanted to write in, but don't feel you could pull it off?

If I had my choice, I would be known as a science fiction author, but I have written historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, humour, and non-fiction. My latest is a weird western which is a sub-genre of science fiction. That one was just plain fun. My dad said he ‘laughed for a hundred pages,’ and that made me feel pretty good. It took a long time for my family to start reading my stuff.

That’s what the POD, (print on demand) paperbacks are good for, as well as providing an alternate product format for the old-school types. I like them myself, as a kind of self-awarded trophy. As for a genre I would not write, a good biography can take five years to write, and I’m just not interested.

Do you ever base your characters on people you know?

There must be some true-to-life element in any character. The protagonist in ‘Heaven Is Too Far Away’ is a parody of a couple of Canadian fighter aces from World War One. Major William Barker and Colonel Billy Bishop were some of the top-scoring aces of the war. They must have
had a certain personality type. I can relate to these aggressive lone-wolves pretty well.

What advice would you give to someone who was just starting off in writing?

Love your job. Don’t listen to other writers all the time. It’ll drive you crazy. But if you feel that you have certain weaknesses, or problem areas, or questions about what you are doing, there are all kinds of resources on the internet. Learn the craft and go for it. Try not to look back too much.

Do your stories tend to have morals, or special messages, included within them?

A story or book without some kind of moral point would be a waste of everybody’s time, including the author’s. The question is how well have you hidden it? It’s better when it works on the subconscious mind rather than bashing readers on the top of the skull. A tendency to preach is unfortunate, but the ability to teach is special. As Steve Martin told John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, “A story should have a point, it makes it so much more interesting for the listener.”

This question was posed by a fellow author and I loved it so much I decided to throw it into the mix ~

Oh no! One of your characters has escaped. Luckily, I have caught them! I will interrogate them with the help of a lie detector.

Welcome! Take a seat, make yourself comfortable. You will be returning to your book once this is over. What's your name, where are you from and what is your role in the book?

My name is Mick. I used to live in Canada. I’m twenty-three years old. I’m a mechanical engineering technologist, and I work on Althea, a planet with two suns. Louis is just editing ‘Time-Storm on A-5,’ so I’ve only got a minute. He’d better not cut any of my lines.

We mine piezo-temporal crystals, which are important in the interstellar space-flight industry. That’s because they distort time and space and make possible journeys which were previously beyond the range of the human lifespan. We have a bit of a problem here as people are being killed by mysterious alien beings with strange powers. Rather than be next, we escaped and now we are going to save our friends who are still at risk.

I’d better get back to Althea, as the natives, previously unknown, have captured Melissa and myself—she’s an older woman about 35, and very beautiful. Honestly, I think I have the natives in the palm of my hand, but you never know for sure, do you?

Tell us why we would enjoy reading your books?

For one thing, I have a reckless, ruthless sense of humour. I don’t hold anything back. You would like my books and the people in them, if you like surprises, cliffhangers, new twists on old tales, new ideas, and reading about good people dealing with unique challenges in a bold and entertaining way. The books are just a whole lot of fun. More than anything, I have fun writing them, and that comes through.
Links for books and/or sites

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/louis-bertrand-shalako

http://www.amazon.com/Louis-Bertrand-Shalako/e/B005GHIF86/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/louis-bertrand-shalako/id412091968?mt=11

Chronicles of The K-9 Boys and Girls on Locus Street seriesre