Guest Blog by Alp Mortal

Alp Mortal

The reason I write now is somewhat different from the reason I began writing. Cast your mind back to 2008: the UK entered the Credit Crunch, and on March 31st, 2008, 400,000 people lost their jobs—myself included. Not so quickly coming to the realization that the situation was hardly likely to improve anytime soon, I stuck around, getting more and more depressed as prospects grew thinner and thinner. A friend suggested retraining to teach English as a second language and then hop on a plane to China. That easy?

Actually, it was that easy. But I didn’t hop on a plane to China; I boarded a train for Toulouse. I speak French and I felt more confident trying to get things done in a country where at least I spoke the language. Turns out to have been the turning point in my life.

Backtrack to the last few days in London prior to leaving for France. My best friend and I were having dinner. He said, “Are you planning on writing a journal?” 
I replied, “I’ve thought about it ...” 
“Try something different; by all means write a journal but instead of doing it ‘diary-fashion,’ why not write a story that incorporates all of the people, places and events that you will hopefully encounter?” 
“?” 
“Give it a go...”

In December 2008, I was 43 years old and had never written a word of fiction in my entire life. I had, however, spent 25 years writing technical reports, so the act of writing was not alien, but fiction was a dark ocean, threatening to engulf me. I also had no home, no job, no car—but I felt free for the first time in years. I also had just one suitcase, a laptop and a certificate that said I could teach English. 

Goodbye, UK!

Roll forward to February 2009 and Toulouse. I was failing to get teaching work and had decided to pack up and try something else. Seated in an Algerian café, enjoying what was probably going to be my last coffee and pastry before heading off somewhere else, I looked across the small square and noticed an old gentleman, seated in the window of his studio, working on a violin. BAM!

It was like an adrenaline rush; the story (The Dog and The Eagle) hit me between the proverbial eyes like a locomotive. Two years later, I had finished a 1,200 page crime thriller trilogy that incorporated as many of the people, places and events of my travels up to that point as was possible. (That trilogy is waiting to be re-edited and republished.)

In September 2010, I found myself back at a Buddhist retreat in the Vosges Mountains of France—a work exchange that turned into an odyssée. On Christmas Day 2010, I took up residence in a small, neighboring cottage, which had no power, phone or Internet connection, and spent the next three years working the land to grow my own food (also generating a surplus to exchange for things I couldn’t grow), and generating my own power so that I had enough electricity in my batteries to have light and laptop for three hours every evening so I could write.

At the end of 2012, two years into the self-sustainable lifestyle, and loving it, I was talking to a friend who said, “Why don’t you publish your stories? You can do it yourself these days.”

I don’t know why I had never thought of it before.

Later, after a few searches and some research, I had an Amazon KDP account, and within a few days, I had published my first title. I became addicted to the process, publishing everything I had already written up to that point within the following few months—all of it unedited for the most part. What a rush! For the first time, in a very long time, I felt liberated...totally energized.

Writing had transitioned from an interesting way to record my travels, to a path to achieve a kind of enlightenment. The stories were—and mostly still are—the ongoing narrative of the journey of a 50-year-old gay man, seeking only to be and remain happy.

At the beginning of 2015, I moved to the United States, to set up an indie publishing company with three of my friends (all indie authors). A very different kind of experience. I love Jeffersonville and Louisville, but hate the fact that you have to drive absolutely everywhere (though drive-thru ATMs and drive-thru pharmacies are pretty cool).

Now, in January 2016, I have just returned from the United States and I am back at the Buddhist retreat in the Vosges, looking after the house and the cat for the owners while they take a break. Still writing, publishing and marketing; also with a publishing company to co-manage (The Carter Seagrove Project, LLC) which is the driving force of my life right now.

I find that I cannot go a day without writing—it is a drug; it makes me insanely happy; and I still incorporate as much of my journey into the stories as I can. However, whereas the early stories incorporated a lot of my experiences up to that point in an almost autobiographical way, now I have transitioned to using the feelings and emotions I felt/feel as the essential fuel of the story I am writing, which itself has become more of a matrix and less of a linear-style narrative.

It never feels like a sacrifice despite having sacrificed almost everything to get to this point. I have no permanent home, no car, and no reliable income. I have one suitcase, a laptop and a Kindle. If you can’t carry it, you don’t need it! If needs be, I could write on the Kindle, so I could afford to kiss the laptop and the suitcase goodbye.

Happy to the point of delirium—how?

I think about this a lot. Many of my stories deal with "issues" and the process of "resolving" them. I resolve nearly all of my issues through writing them out of my head. However, we all have issues and they don’t all resolve neatly, so staying happy is about being honest about how I feel, confronting my fears, exchanging my energy, and helping as many people as possible in as many ways as possible.

Personal mantras: Energy follows intention. Honor your gifts.

I used to write one story at a time. There may have been times when I had a story waiting to be reviewed and a new one on the desktop being worked on actively. That changed. Now I have at least twelve manuscripts open on the desktop at any one time, and I spend my time flitting between them all, sometimes adding a single word, a sentence, a chapter, or ten thousand words, but it would be rare to spend the writing day focused on just one project.

Input hungry? Yes, I am. Typically, I will be writing to music (the story will dictate the type of music I want to listen to); often opera/classical, rarely vocals because they distract me. I’ll have a stack of short films and any number of Youtube vloggers latest posts to watch throughout the day. I’ll be flitting between at least six books on the Kindle.

How do stories arrive? Often, a line of dialogue will pop into my head. For example, "four shot tall latte, please," is the opening line of The Great Dane Saga, which is 150,000 words and waiting to be re-edited and republished. One line of fairly innocuous dialogue gives rise to a tome of 500 pages? Yes. And that is just one of many examples. That said, the latest story that I’m working on (The (mis-)Adventures of Captain Du Bon Le Phare) arose as a consequence of reaching for a tube of my favorite harissa paste—the name of the brand sparked a thought that has turned into a steampunk-ish style chronicle of an anti-hero. Will it become a series? I would not be surprised.

Literally everything comes into the realm of inspiration. The death of a coral reef, reported on the Internet, spawns a safe sex fable (Juxtaposition). One of my favorite films, Dead Ringers, gives rise to a dark story of sibling rivalry (The Two Piece Jigsaw). Emma Kirkby’s rendition of Dido’s Lament births an epic love story (Grand Affair). Finding a Stone Age arrowhead in my garden produces a fantasy series (The Map Stick). Every story has a trigger, and it seems to me that of late, almost everything is giving rise to a new story.

Writing is my entire Universe (which also involves posting 100 tweets a day); and when I am not writing my own stories, I’m collaborating with my best buddy, Chamber Mars, to produce the Inspector Fenchurch Mysteries (as Carter Seagrove), or I’m translating Chambers’ two series Zac Tremble Investigates and The Life & Times of Johnny Santé into English; or I’m co-editing the work of Morgan Starr and Shannon M. Kirkland; or quite possibly, designing/co-designing a new book cover or book trailer, processing the edits on the latest audio-book recordings sent in by the voice talent, working with other artists to produce original abstract art narratives for some of the stories, which will be used for book trailers/short films.

And there are the films! Principally, Tonight It’s You, a short film being made between The Carter Seagrove Project LLC and ASPD films. We expect to release in early March 2016. Writing has led to the formation of so many partnerships and friendships—probably my least expected outcome of self-publishing...but the most cherished of them all.

The journey of the last three years of self-publishing has been the most satisfying that I can ever remember.

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No witches, warlocks or vampires...

just a sexy tale about trying to live the Hollywood dream...
Luigi's Chinese Delicatessen by Jim Vines

Guest Post by E.P. Clark

E.P. Clark

When I was about six, my parents read me a story called “Whisper the Winged Unicorn.”  In retrospect, it may not have been that great, but for me it was a life-changing experience, because the six-year-old me wanted to be Whisper, wanted to live in Whisper’s world.  Soon I was spending as much time as I could walking around and around, preferably on top of something high and difficult to balance on (first the edges of truck beds, then fence tops, then barn walls) and telling myself stories: first about Whisper, and then about all the other horses, unicorns, and other creatures that were filling my imagination to overflowing.  By the time I was seven I’d even learned to read (I’d been very skeptical about reading as an activity prior to this) in order to be able to feed my craving.

            
So it was pretty much set, in my mind at least, that I was going to be a writer.  The problem, as I’m sure my comrades of the keyboard will understand, was that my technique was in no way adequate for my ideas.  By the time I was in my mid-teens I already had the seeds of the world that I’ve ended up using in The Midnight Land, my first novel, germinating in my head, and when I was 18 I started writing my first novel based on that world.  Fortunately, that draft has been consigned to dead-laptop oblivion, as has its sequel and the sequel after that (I might suffer from a touch of graphomania), but I spent the next 10+ years working on and off on various novels, novellas, and short stories, a few of which were published (most of which have, quite rightly, been allowed to return to the soil from which they came), where they are nurturing the new seedlings that are springing up from that loam.

            
As all this was going on I’d also decided to buckle down and get a degree and a job.  I radically over-fulfilled the plan, getting not one but three degrees: a BA in International Studies, an MA in Russian Translation, and a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures.  It was while I was working on the last that I got my idea for The Midnight Land.  I was reading medieval Russian literature and came across that phrase, which was frequently used to refer to Russia and the north, and I knew that I’d just found the title for my next short story.  I immediately sat down and started writing it, thinking I’d finish it that fall and submit it somewhere over winter break.

            
Two years and a considerable amount of pain later, I had a thousand-page first draft, along with a pressing need to finish my dissertation and get a proper job.  So I put away the novel and concentrated on graduating and finding academic employment, two experiences that, to borrow from Dick Francis, opened up vistas of writing pain that I would have much rather had remained closed.  Writing cover letter after cover letter, research proposal after research proposal, updating and proofreading my CV, writing and submitting articles for publication, and trying to get in what I could of my dissertation whenever I could, while also teaching and grading, and then, when I finally got a job after 10 months of this, realizing that 1) the job didn’t pay enough to live on, and 2) it was time to start all over again, because my contract didn’t even last all the way through the semester (seriously—my first contract ended before the last week of the semester, which meant I wrote, administered, and graded my final exams, and submitted my final grades, while I was not technically under contract with the college) was the kind of thing that either breaks you down, or makes you stronger.  Honestly, I’m not sure which it has done for me, but after several years of the contingent academic labor life, fortunately on the “upward” rather than the “downward” track, my writing discipline is now rock-solid.  Cranking out all those tests, lesson plans, articles, and most especially job materials, often while under a strict deadline and with the possibility for failure—“failure” being one misplaced comma or extra space between words, since that’s the kind of thing they say can doom you—looming large in my mind, made me break through all the barriers between my keyboard and my subconscious, so that when I started working on my fiction again, I was astounded at how quickly and easily the words flowed.

            
Once I’d decided to return to fiction, I decided to look into self-publishing, since I’d become pretty disillusioned with the editing process as I’d experienced it as an academic, and I was also tired of getting piles of rejection letters every week.  I figured it was one thing to get paid to go through that kind of thing as a job, but I didn’t need to do it in my leisure time as well, and I didn’t want to spoil my relationship to my art with those kinds of pressures.  I spent more than a year polishing up The Midnight Land in between my full-time job of teaching and research and my other full-time job of applying for more teaching and research jobs, and then, just as I thought it was ready to go to press…I had a brilliant idea for the last book in the series.  So I spent the next year and a half working on that instead, and ended up with another 1000-page manuscript, plus lots of key insights about the world I’d created, which I went back and added into The Midnight Land, before finally, finally deciding to go ahead and publish it on Amazon.
             
I hit a slight snag at that point when I discovered (duh!) that my manuscripts were way too long to be published as is, and needed to be broken up into multiple volumes.  I’d originally planned a trilogy, called The Zemnian Trilogy, and I still am planning three more-or-less stand-alone stories with three different central characters, but each story is being split up into multiple volumes, so it looks like I’ll end up with a trilogy in seven volumes, if not more.  As a huge J.R.R. Tolkien and Douglas Adams fan, I actually quite like the idea of having a book that is composed of multiple books, and a trilogy that is made up of more than three books.  I split The Midnight Land into two volumes, breaking it off (again, partly as an homage to Tolkien) at the most dramatic moment I could find.  I’ve released Part I (The Flight) in both Kindle and print form, and Part II (The Gift) in Kindle form; I’m hoping to release it in print form soon.  Now I’m working on The Breathing Sea, the next installment in the series, which like any good Russian novel will no doubt will be just as loose, baggy, and monstrous as its sisters.

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You can connect with E.P. Clark on Facebook!

No witches, warlocks or vampires...

just a sexy tale about trying to live the Hollywood dream...

Luigi's Chinese Delicatessen by Jim Vines

Here's Me Giving Nicolas Cage Get His First Film Award (from 1981)!!

Just for fun...

Here's a video of yours truly presenting Nicolas Cage (at the time he was Nicolas Coppola) with a Best Actor prize at the Beverly Hills High School Student Film Awards, in May 1981.

Nicolas Cage Gets His First Film Award!

* Please excuse the not-so-great quality of the video.

No witches, warlocks or vampires...

just a sexy tale about trying to live the Hollywood dream...

Luigi's Chinese Delicatessen by Jim Vines

Guest Post by Virginia C. West

Virginia C. West

Never in a thousand years did I imagine I’d ever become a writer. Actually, up until very recently, I wasn’t too terribly certain I even was a writer! I most definitely enjoyed writing when I was a wee lass. I wrote some short stories in school and I always got high praise, and I wrote relentlessly in my daily diary for years, but I never dared to consider myself an actual writer.  My passion has always been music (I play a pretty mean guitar, I’m good with lyrics, and I have a voice that gets the job done). At the age of twenty I got the notion that I was meant to be a singer/songwriter in the vein of, say, Alanis Morissette or Avril Lavigne.

One day in early 2009—not long after my boyfriend Nathaniel committed suicide—I heard a little voice in my head say, “Pack up your shit, get on a bus, get yourself to L.A., and GO MAKE MUSIC!” Well, that’s exactly what I did. My journey began in April 2009. It’s nearly 7 years later and I’m still in L.A. and I’m still making music…but I’m also doing a lot of writing.

As I said, I’ve always kept a diary of some sort—especially the days, months and years after landing in L.A. In early 2015, after reading several pages of my diary, my BFF Karen told me, “You need to publish this!” I thought she was crazy.  I mean, who’d want to read MY diaries; and did I really want to share my innermost thoughts and feelings—my whole damn life!—with the world?  I mean, come on, it's some pretty raw shit. For better or worse, Karen talked me into it. She said, “Those diaries have a definite entertainment value, but they’re also a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of taking a chance on Hollywood.” I mulled it over for a good long while and eventually realized Karen was right. I also figured I had nothing to lose. Karen, who's a writer herself, walked me through the whole self-publishing thing. It wasn't nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. Now, all these months later, I’m pleased to announce that Diary of a Rock & Roll Chick (Book One) is available to anyone who wants to read it.

I have other writing projects on the horizon as well. I’m currently working on three short stories, which I’m enjoying the hell out of. I’ve also decided to tackle a novel, which I’m presently outlining.

Oddly, I’ve found that writing prose offers me a sense of peace and a sense of accomplishment that music has never quite given me. Not sure why that is. But it’s pretty awesome creating worlds, and characters, and situations—and I don’t ever want to stop doing it!

My biggest problem is finding the time to write. I currently work a “regular” job in addition to the occasional music gig. But I find that if I dedicate 45 minutes to an hour each day, usually in the early morning, I can have a decent word count over the period of a week. I wish it could be more, but that’s just not feasible right now. But who knows—if Diary of a Rock & Roll Chick takes off, if I can make a few bucks from it, I can cut back on the day job…and I can dedicate much more time per week to my new found love: writing. I'll admit, that’s a bit of a dream, but I don’t care. After all, a girl’s gotta have a dream!

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Diary of a Rock and Roll Chick is available at Amazon as well as B&N (Nook), Apple Books, Tolino, Scribd, Kobo, Indigo, Angus & Robertson, Mondadori!

You can follow Virginia on Twitter and Facebook!

No witches, warlocks or vampires...

just a sexy tale about trying to live the Hollywood dream...

Luigi's Chinese Delicatessen by Jim Vines

Guest Post by Indie Author Deanna Dee

Deanna Dee

I’ve heard many authors say some variation of “I’d love to be able to write full-time." I often stay quiet if I’m in a position to reply because, like anything else, writing full-time isn’t perfect. I currently write as my day job, and I feel lucky that I have the ability to pursue my dreams, but having twenty-four hours, seven days a week to write has a downside. Most obviously is the logistics of essentially running a small business by myself. I not only have to write and publish...there’s also marketing, scheduling, formatting, budgeting. You name it, I’m doing it. Perhaps more challenging is…finding time to write. In addition to learning much about the non-writing aspects of the business, I've learned about time management. I've also learned much about myself. For example, I’ve learned that afternoons are not my creative time; I work much better in the morning and evening. So I try to compensate for this by fitting other things into afternoons, like laundry and errands. (Move over, tightrope artists, my balance is becoming flawless!) And finally, the most challenging: getting motivated. If I know I have a deadline coming, I work. The zing accompanying a book release also helps keep me on track. There are times, though, when I just flag. When those times hit, I take time away and only write when something strikes. After all, even 9-to-5 jobs have weekends off. The trick is to take a day and get back in the saddle. I’ve learned a lot about that, too. So the next time you wish you could write full-time, think about what that means. Writing as a day job lacks imposed structure, so you'll need to make your own structure. I’m good at regulating my own schedule, but doing so is not for everyone. If you think you can train yourself, try it. There’s nothing like having plenty of time to write.

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INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: KELLI CROCKETT

Kelli Crockett

Q: Kelli...what made you become a writer?

A: I've always loved to write, ever since I was a little kid. I would always tell stories and my mom would type them up and print them out like they were books. I guess I got serious about writing a couple years ago when I came up with an idea for a book that I couldn't stop thinking about. Ever since then, I've been writing novels and short stories. I've published one and another is on the way.

Q: What is your typical writing day like?

A: Writing days are the kind of days that you don't get out of your pajamas for. I like to make hot chocolate or grab something that goes with peanut butter. Food is important. And then I reread what I wrote or edited the day before and go on from there. Some writing days are different, though. Sometimes I'll write in an environment that's similar to the scene I plan to write that day, like going into a dark attic for a creepy scene or sitting outside for a more lighthearted scene. And sometimes I don't have writing days. Writing all night is way easier because there aren't as many distractions and nothing is going to interrupt you when you get into the story.

Q: Do you outline? If so, how extensive are your outlines?

A: Yes! I love to outline. It's kind of how I hype myself up for writing the first draft because it will help me get through it. My outlines are fairly extensive. I start with sticky notes on a poster board to figure out the basic plot and then elaborate from there, filling in the blanks. Of course I also plan out characters and settings and all of the little details in research. My story never quite sticks to the outline, though. I like it better that way, so I'm not in control and the story can run free. That's the fun of it.

Q: How many revisions will you typically do on a novel?

A: It depends on how bad I mess up with the first draft. Sometimes I'll go through ten drafts and sometimes I'll go through five or six. For the one I'm writing now, it's looking to be around six or seven... I've got my work cut out for me. I do keep a lot of my first draft in there, but the best parts come out in editing.

Q: What is your best tip for editing a manuscript?

A: Don't give up. That is the single hardest thing about editing. I just started editing my second novel, and all I want to do is read. I'm three days from winter break and no school and I couldn't be happier. That means I'm going to be editing and I can actually get into it. Editing is monotonous and boring at first, especially if you don't like your first draft, but you can't give up. Don't start writing something else. You've just got to look at how much you've done and find inspiration for another draft.

Q: Which writing habits and/or tricks of the trade have made you a better writer?

A: Avoiding laziness is my main problem, but I'm changing that. You see, I am an expert in procrastination. I love NaNoWriMo because it doesn't allow you to be lazy. Laziness is what makes us overlook misspellings and grammatical errors. It makes us ignore things that tell us we'll have to rewrite a whole chapter. To fix that, I got into a habit of writing every day, and now I can't stand to be lazy with my work. It's all or nothing when I write now, and that's something that has already made me a better writer. 

Q: Do you ever suffer through writer’s block? If so, how do you fight it?

A: Yes, unfortunately. Writer's block is something that is in the mind, not the fingers, which is great, because as long as I can type, I'm writing. Even if I'm not feeling the story that day or if I just can't figure out what comes next, I write anyway. Even if it's trash, I can edit it later. Sometimes I'll write parts of the story that I am looking forward to getting to, and then connect the dots on how to get there. Sometimes I just remind myself that it's a first draft and it's okay if it sucks, because I'm the only one reading it. 

Q: What drew you to write your preferred genre(s)?

A: I love to write about things that gets people on the edge of their seat; things that get your blood pumping and make you turn the pages faster. I don't know why, but that has always been my preferred genre to read, so I guess writing it came naturally. Even when I don't intend to, my stories all lead to some kind of huge, dangerous, perilous climax.

Q: Do you utilize beta readers?

A: Yes! Beta readers are a great way to get input. It's even better when beta readers have discussions about things in the book. This gives you insight into how they see it versus how you saw it when you were writing.

Q: In your most recently published novel, what’s one scene you really enjoyed writing—and why?

A: My most recently published novel is Looking for Lily. I would actually consider it more of a novella, since it's short. My favorite scene was the climax, when the main character is face to face with the antagonists, having no idea whether or not he is about to die for what he believes in. I liked writing this part because it was so real to me, and it pulled me into the story like no other part in the novella. Of course, now when I read it I can't help but think about how much I've improved and how much more editing I should have done on it.

Q: What makes the main character(s) of your most recent novel so special?

A: I'm going to answer with my upcoming novel, Holding My Breath. My main character is so much more developed than any character I've written so far. Maybe it's the fact that she's nothing like me, or because of her backstory, but she is real in my head. I was talking about it to another writer and she had to stop me and reminded me that my character isn't real. I'm not kidding. This character was so real to me that I didn't even feel like I was controlling her anymore...that's when you know you have a well-rounded character. They can just be so stubborn sometimes. The other characters in my book are unique too and I'm looking forward to developing them more in the second draft. 

Q: What is your best advice for author self-promotion?

A: Give back to your readers somehow. Even if it isn't through giveaways or tours, that's fine. Get social media. Answer questions from fans. Meet them. I'm writing a blog all about writing and novelizing because it is something that I like to write about and there are people who want to read it because they say it inspires them. I love inspiring people, so I keep writing. And I love writing, so I keep writing. Just try to give back and don't get full of yourself or anything because then it isn't about the writing or the readers anymore. And that's what matters.

Q: How do you deal with negative reviews?

A: It depends. If the review is bad because of something in the writing that I agree with, then I write it down. I have a list of things that I have to remind myself not to do with the story when I go back to edit. Like when I get in the habit of using this one word as an adjective and it happens too much. If the bad review is because somebody doesn't like me, then I just shake it off. If they haven't read the book or don't know me and they are just criticizing me, then I'm not going to bother with them. When someone criticizes the writing, though, I seriously do try to take it into account and work on it.

Q: What is your favorite aspect of being an indie author?

A: It's not even something that comes with being an author, exactly. I just love the writing. Being an author, though, is amazing because the writing I do turns into books that I can hold in my hands. It's awesome to meet people who have read my book and talk with them about it. Or when someone asks me to sign their copy or something. I love meeting people who love my stories as much as I do. But the best thing has to be writing the story itself. I love to come up with the characters and their lives and what they are going to do about the problems they face. I love coming up with new worlds and exploring them. Writing is like reading but better, because you can make it whatever you want.

Q: What is your least favorite aspect of being an indie author?

A: To be honest, my least favorite part is when people judge me because of my age. I'm still a teenager, and I know there are so many other writers out there who are more experienced and have more developed writing styles. I know I'm not going to get famous or anything off of my books. That's not why I write. Writing, for me, is something that I love to do and I'll keep doing it. You can't judge the writing based off my age, even if it does mean I'm not experienced or whatever. I share what I write because there are people out there who want to read it, but if you don't want to, nobody is making you. Just because I'm young, doesn't mean I'm not allowed to follow my dreams. Of course, most people don't say it to my face, even if they think what I do is just some kiddish phase. Most people encourage me and stop to talk to me about my work. Especially friends and family, but it isn't just the people who I know I can count on. I've gotten to talk and connect with a ton of other writers and authors over Twitter, writing conferences, and NaNoWriMo. They've all been super supportive and understand what it's like to write.

Q: What is your current writing project?

A: I just finished NaNoWriMo with a 116,000 word book called Holding My Breath. Obviously, I've got a ton of editing to do since I just started my second draft. The book is something I've wanted to write for a while, since I can get into the minds of characters who are nothing like me and I can explore a story that I haven't completely finished developing yet. In fact, by the end of my editing, the odds of it being the same story is not likely. It's something I'm excited about and that means it's something I'm going to bring to a whole new level.

Q: What are three of your favorite novels?

A: This is a hard question. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken is definitely one of them. The writing and development of that story is simply amazing, and I have looked up to this book for a while. It's that awesome. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is also up on my list. Overall, the story sent a beautiful and touching message and I love his writing style. Finally, I just read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and it's still stuck in my head. Rowell is great at capturing that essence of writing and the whole dynamic of why we write, why writers need to finish a story and how real it can become, even when we know it's fiction.

Q: If you could have lunch with any novelist, living or dead, who would it be? What would talk to them about?

A. I'd love to meet Alexandra Bracken, but I feel like my answer to this question changes from day to day. There are so many authors that I look up to and would love to meet. So many. Too many to name. I just wrote a blog post about the writing style of Bracken and how she uses such unique description and I wish I could talk to her about that. Even just the dialogue and everything in the Darkest Minds trilogy that has stuck with me. I would love to know how she came up with the story.

Q: What is your best piece of advice for budding authors?

A. Don't give up. You might face judgment from others or momentary doubts of your writing ability. You might have people who think that what you do is a joke. You might not want to keep going until the end. I'm telling you now: If you like to write, and you have a story you want to tell, don't let anything stop you from  telling it. Even if it is yourself, even if you get bored and want to move on to something more interesting, don't give up. I promise you won't regret it.

Q: What is your favorite inspirational quote?

A: "The best way out is always through."— Robert Frost

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No witches, warlocks or vampires...

just a sexy tale about trying to live the Hollywood dream...

Luigi's Chinese Delicatessen by Jim Vines

Guest Post by Indie Author Kathy Zebert...

Kathy Zebert

Chapter 3, Page 55

Hi!  I’m Kathy Zebert, and this is the short story of my transition from court reporter to novelist over the last five months.  This is the third chapter in the novel of my life, and the 55^th page, because, well, I’m 55, and each year seems to be blazing by similar to the amount of time it takes to read a page in a book. 

The first chapter in my life lasted 32 years, until I finally figured out that I needed a career, a profession, a way to be financially independent.  I began the second chapter more than 21 years ago; a career in court reporting, a.k.a. stenographer.  I’m the lady that sits in court and depositions and moves her fingers on that little machine no one really knows anything about.  You’ve seen them in movies, TV crime shows, maybe even if you’ve been in a courtroom.  The camera will pan past her, but rarely does anyone make mention of her, talk to her, or even know her name. 

But that’s sort of the point of the profession.  Court reporters are supposed to be silent guardians of the record.  They are trained listeners, taking down every word and making a record of a legal case, the tragic stories of other people’s lives.  They are crucial to the process of litigation, with a required knowledge base like none other in the world, ethics beyond reproach, and the skillset similar to that of an Olympian athlete.  They work very long hours, under unbelievable deadlines, through holidays and weekends, to be sure that the transcripts that result from those legal proceedings are as perfect as humanly possible.  An entire novel could be written about what goes into this profession, but that’s the synopsis of Chapter 2 for me.

As you can imagine, after 21 years in this profession, there have been many changes.  In the last decade, seeing the “writing” on the wall, I began to think about where I wanted to be in Chapter 3.  I’ve been writing in some form or fashion since the early ‘70s, and along the way, I’ve been published in trade journals, newsletters, et cetera.  But the real push to write began about two years ago, with the passing of my dad.  You see, he was a jurist, and because I was in the legal services business, we loved talking about it. After his death, and along with all of the other changes in the profession, I knew I needed joy.  There is no joy in the subject matter of litigation, so my pursuit of joy threw me into a frenzy of a full year of a baking business before I realized that although it was extremely joyful, it was not physically or financially beneficial for my life’s Chapter 3.  Let’s just say I gained pounds and lost dollars.

Not to be discouraged from my pursuit of joy, I began to think about my experience as a court reporter, speaker and writer, and thought, Hey, what about a novel about a court reporter?  I can give them a voice.   My daughter had just completed her master’s degree in linguistics, and she’s an excellent editor/graphic artist.  Perfect!  In talking with her about my idea for the novel, she said, “Mom, it’s a great story, but you won’t write it.”  It was then that Incredulity was born and Chapter 3 began for me.  I needed to show my daughter what her mom was made of.  And the bonus was that I got to work with her on it as my editor.  That was June of this year, and through a move from one state to another, Incredulity was not only written, but self-published in both print and e-book and available all over the world.  Joy just became incredulity!

The writing was easy.  The story fell together as if it was planned.  It wasn’t, really, but it poured out of me so quickly that my fingers couldn’t keep up.  The process of getting it formatted for both e-book and print was a little frustrating because I didn’t have the money to pay a service to do it for me.  But I found videos, articles, reached out to strangers, and it finally came to fruition.  Next stop, beta readers.  Easy.  Everyone wants to be helpful and read it first.  Next stop, marketing.  Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, oh, my!  I’m in!  I’m still floundering around with marketing, but I already had an audience of court reporters, and they began to purchase, read and review.

Everyone who knows me is completely aware that I’m no stranger to conversation, and I needed a site for my launch party, a press release, and who knows what else!  And because Incredulity is an over-the-top romance between a court reporter and a Texas rancher, who shows up on her docket for murder, I really wanted a cowboy at the party.  Phone call after phone call, my wishes came true.  The party was booked at a bookstore, the professional cowboy showed up, and the ranch offered up their PR person, who amazingly brought her horse, Chico, to the party!  Yes, I got on a horse for the very first time in my life!

 

Then the local radio station owner asked for an interview, twice.  He read the book and said he thought it was a screenplay and that I needed an agent!  What?!  (I haven’t found one…yet.)  I published on October 4th, and in the first month, I had 150 combined e-book and paperback sales!  That’s huge for someone who has no outside help, no experience in the industry, and no real connections.  I’m learning something new every day.

Chapter 3 has been a blessing so far.  Although I’m still standing in the middle of the street between the courthouse and the bookstore, hoping not to be run over by a truck, I know I’ve found my new purpose.  Book 2, Madame Court Reporter, will be out in early 2016.  The business aspect of writing is very much the same as court reporting.  Both focus on words, both rely on sales of copies for financial success, and both are seeing a decline in the value of the person responsible for getting those words on paper.  The one major difference, however, is the joy that writing brings, not just to me, but to the reader. When readers ask if they can date your character or suggest an actor for the role in the movie, again... Incredulity!

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No witches, warlocks or vampires...

just a sexy tale about trying to live the Hollywood dream...

Luigi's Chinese Delicatessen by Jim Vines