Friday Feature – Author Laurel McHargue

So a big welcome to a fellow Colorado writer today – Laurel McHargue. In addition to being a guest on my blog, today is a special day for her. It is the 35th anniversary of her graduation from West Point Academy. That is amazing and I’m glad that she was willing to share her journey with us. So on to her story 🙂

 

Why My Goal is to Publish in Every Genre

By Laurel McHargue

 

When my high school guidance counselor told me I shouldn’t apply to Smith College as an early decision applicant—I should have several backups in my pocket—I wasn’t mature enough to realize she was projecting her own insecurities onto me, as if I needed more than my own at the time. But I applied the way I wanted to, was accepted, and got to know myself as a person separate from my parents over three challenging and eye-opening semesters on the picturesque Northampton campus.

What I discovered was how little I knew about myself.

I accepted a job through Smith’s summer work placement program after my first year. The job? Housekeeper, light fare cook, and companion to a 65-year-old Smith grad. I hadn’t cooked a day in my life up to that point. The fourth of five girls in my family, I was often dodging too many helpers in our kitchen, but I never minded hanging out in my bedroom with a good book. I was fairly sure I could follow a recipe and not kill anyone with the resultant meal.

And what a wonderful opportunity! I’d live for six weeks with a woman who’d be my mentor. She had worked at Harvard Business School before retiring. She would help me discover my purpose in life.

Wrong.

She had no time for me—ME!—and no interest in mentoring a young Smithie. She barely acknowledged my presence. So I cleaned her ashtrays and accompanied her between her apartment in Boston’s Prudential Center and her little place on the beach in Connecticut and didn’t kill her with my cooking.

And I decided I needed a change.

My parents had raised me to believe I could do and be anything I wanted, yet I knew I’d never really been tested academically, physical, and emotionally. I wanted to be tested.

I had my meeting with the Dean of Smith in November of my sophomore year, a requirement for anyone leaving the ivy towers of the Seven Sisters College, to tell her I’d started an application to the United States Military Academy at West Point and would leave Smith at the end of the semester to prepare. I was fairly confident my application would be approved.

She told me I shouldn’t leave. I was making a mistake. Didn’t I see how well I was doing at Smith? She told me I really shouldn’t make such a drastic move. It wouldn’t be a good fit for me.

Huh.

She was almost right. As a woman in the fourth class to see women at West Point, I experienced the wrath of many cadets, grads, and professors who believed women shouldn’t be marching alongside the men of the Long Gray Line. I came close to failing out of West Point because my plebe English instructor, an Army Captain, told me I couldn’t write.

But I could, and I did, and after graduating from West Point in 1983, I served in the Army for nine years on Active Duty and over three more in the Army Reserves. But what does any of this have to do with my goal as an author?

The answer is simple. First and foremost, I want to publish in every genre because it will be a challenge. Second and aftmost (thought I’d made up that word, but alas, I did not), I’ve been told I shouldn’t.

After publishing “Miss?” and Waterwight, an author friend told me I should adopt a pseudonym for publishing The Hare, Raising Truth because clearly, my niche is educational writing and The Hare is, well, rather naughty. Not naughty enough to check porn off my “to do” list, but not nice enough for a middle school classroom—though many of my former 7th grade students would disagree.

Different writing conferences I’ve attended also have promoted the “niche” message. “Market yourself as a (fill in the blank) writer.” “Be the ‘go to’ author for (this specific) genre.” And what has been my response to these messages?

Pshaw!

Every genre presents its challenges, and I’m a firm believer that a life filled with challenges will never be boring. As I work on Waterwight Breathe this year, the last book of my Waterwight Trilogy, I write with full awareness that I’m doing something I “shouldn’t” do. I’m writing it in first person present tense, whereas my first two books remain consistently in third person past tense. Why?

You know why. It’s different. It’s a challenge. I haven’t done it before, and after reading The Hunger Games Trilogy, I was inspired to try it. I wrote The Hare, Raising Truth in second person perspective for the same reason, and Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone voice was a powerful inspiration behind each creepy scene. It was great fun to write.

So while many will stand by their advice that I shouldn’t write in multiple genres, I believe I should, and I will. If Neil Gaiman can do it, so can I. And hey, is someone going to knock on my door and drag me off to jail for breaking any “rules” of writing?

I think not. But if I do find myself behind bars for daring to color outside the lines, just think of the story I’ll write about it. It’ll be a challenge.

 

~~~~~

 

Award-winning author Laurel McHargue, a 1983 graduate of The United States Military Academy at West Point, was raised in Braintree, Massachusetts, but somehow found her way to the breathtaking elevation of Leadville, Colorado, where she has taught and currently lives with her husband and Ranger, the German Shepherd. She established Leadville Literary League, a nonprofit organization with a mission to promote local literary endeavors and the arts, and hosts the podcast ‘Alligator Preserves’ about storytelling and the human condition. She blogs about life, real and imagined, at leadvillelaurel.com. Find her at the 2018 Denver Comic Con June 15-17.

 

Links:

Laurel’s Amazon Author Page

Laurel’s website

Laurel’s Twitter

Laurel’s Facebook

Alligator Preserves Podcast

 

Friday Feature – Blogger Katie Huey

Here is the blogger of the blog 52 Beautiful Things, Katie Huey. Go check out her blog, it’s amazing!

I started my blog 52 Beautiful Things in 2013. We had just postponed my upcoming wedding because my grandpa died and my fiance had gotten laid off. My personal life felt shaky and uncertain. Always a cheerleader for the positive in the world, I decided to make my search for beauty a public thing. I needed to put words to the good. As the years have gone by I’ve gone through lots of ups and downs – got married, bought a house, lost my dad, and dealt with grief. I’m starting to realize that’s how things work – a bittersweet mix of good and bad, joy and pain, ugliness and beauty. It’s impossible and impractical to live in awesome all the time. Yet, we can find beauty in despair, confusion and pain if we start to look.

The blog continues to be an outlet for me and I always am tickled when readers share how my perspectives inspire, challenge or connect with them. Things are scary out there and the world needs more light. Looking for the beauty in the ordinary things keeps me grounded – it’s a bonus when my words help others in their journey as well. I’ve yet to make money on this platform, but the purpose of seeking good and connecting with readers keeps me coming back each week to write more.

More of my writing projects can be found here.

​You can check out her blog here

Or connect with her on  Instagram and Twitter

Happy Friday Everyone!

Friday Feature – Author Ann Parker

 

Bringing the Past to Life through History-Mystery

 

I’ll begin with a big THANK YOU to Kat for offering me a chance to participate in her Friday Feature so I can introduce you to my Silver Rush historical mystery series.

 

My books take place primarily—but not entirely!—in 1880 Leadville, Colorado. Leadville is a real town up at the 10,000 foot mark in the Rocky Mountains. Why, you may ask, did I settle on setting an historical mystery series in Leadville? Well, as my Uncle Walt, a Colorado native, once enthused to me, “Leadville was the site of one of the biggest silver rushes in the world! People came from all over, thinking they’d get rich overnight…”

 

Since I have lived in California all my life, I well understood frenetic craziness that ensues when folks get hooked into the “get rich quick” frame of mind (think: dot-com boom, real-estate bubble, etc.).

 

Uncle Walt continued, “…They didn’t realize that you couldn’t just pick silver ‘nuggets’ up off the ground, and that’s when all the trouble started.”

 

Trouble indeed!

 

My uncle’s enthusiasm for Leadville was infectious, so I began to research Leadville and her history, and to fashion my characters. I decided to make my protagonist Inez Stannert, named after my paternal grandmother, who was raised in Leadville but never breathed a word about it to me, despite her love of telling stories of her life in Denver (yet another mystery!). My fictional Inez Stannert runs the Silver Queen Saloon in Leadville along with her husband’s business partner, Abe Jackson, a free man of color.

 

When the first book in the series, Silver Lies, opens, the reader quickly learns that Inez’s husband, gambler and all-around-charmer Mark Stannert, has been missing for close to nine months. What has happened to him? Did he perish by falling down one of the many mining shafts? Did he just “up and leave?” Is he alive or dead? Well, such questions were not easily answered in 1880 (no Social Security numbers for tracking people down, for instance). So, Inez and Abe carry on as best they can.

 

A woman running a saloon in the wide-open boomtown of Leadville is unusual, but not unheard of: in the 1880 census, 228 men claimed the occupation of saloon keeper or bartender, compared to 3 women. So, who is Inez? She is a woman in a man’s world. She runs a high-stakes poker game, holds her whiskey with the best, plays piano beautifully enough to “make the angels weep.” She also carries a Remington pocket revolver, because who knows when trouble will strike in this tumultuous town, where the law is overwhelmed by the lawless?

 

I conveniently set the Silver Queen Saloon on the corner of the business and red-light districts.  Between that and the general “silver-induced frenzy” the silver boom brought to this region, I had no trouble at all fashioning stories that weave real-life events into my fiction. For instance, in Silver Lies, folks are “dying to get rich.” In the second book, Iron Ties, I explore the (real-life) railroad wars that finally brought the iron horse to Leadville, as well as the plight of the town and railroad’s Civil War vets, many still suffering from the aftermath of the conflict 15 years after the war’s end. The third, Leaden Skies, features the arrival of former president and Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant to town on a five-day visit. I refer to this one as my “dirty politics” book. (The more things change, the more they stay the same. Such seems to be the course of human history.)

 

Of course, there are mysterious deaths, confidence games, tomfoolery of various kinds, and everyone has their secrets—even Inez, who I like to describe as a woman with a shadowy past, a complicated present, and an uncertain future. The series also provides a bit of romance… but I won’t say much about that in fear of spoilers.

 

As I said above, my series takes place mostly—but not entirely!—in Colorado. The sixth and newest book in my series, A Dying Note, finds Inez in 1881 San Francisco, California. Now manager of a music store, she is trying to forge a new life for herself in the “Paris of the West” and put her unsavory years in Leadville behind her. However, as the Kirkus Review of this book notes, “Leaving behind a life of secrets proves no easy task.” Inez carefully constructed life threatens to tumble about her ears when the badly beaten body of a young musician washes up to shore. Inez becomes entangle in the mystery of his death when the musician turns out to have ties to Leadville, ties that threaten to explore Inez’s notorious past.  Publishers Weekly praises the “fascinating period details, flamboyant characters, and surprising plot twists,” of A Dying Note, adding, “Parker leaves the reader longing to see what Inez will get up to next.”

 

As to what new mysteries and challenges Inez may face in the seventh book, all I will say is: stay tuned!

 

Ann Parker lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is a science writer by day and a crime fiction author by night. Her Silver Rush historical series, featuring protagonist Inez Stannert and published by Poisoned Pen Press, has won numerous awards, including the Colorado Book Award, the Colorado Gold Award, the Willa Literary Award, and the Bruce Alexander Historical Mystery Award.

 

Find out more about Ann and her series at http://annparker.net/

On Wednesdays she blogs at http://silverrushmysteries.blogspot.com/

She spends way too much time on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/annparker.writer

And pins interesting historical bits from her research on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/annparkerauthor/

Friday Feature – Stephanie Risner

Juggling the Muses

“I just love your covens and your OTS stories. When is the next one coming out?” The attractive blonde mother of two hands me the latest copy of one of my series novels and smiles down at me.

“Two months from now,” I say, opening the book to the page I usually sign. I stop, pause, and double check the name on the front cover.

The woman, an avid fan of my work, raises a brow and gives me a quizzical look.

“Just making sure I sign the right name,” I tell her. We both laugh.

This is my life as a writer with multiple pen names. I have to double check before I sign, triple check to make sure I’ve put the right books in the right newsletter, and be careful I’m posting the right marketing material to the right Facebook fan page.

There’s a reason I have four pen names. No, that’s not a typo. I said four.  See, when I first started my writing career, I wrote non-fiction books and articles and had a column in a national trade magazine. S. Connolly was my original nom de plume. The initial S because in college I learned quickly that female writers were taken more seriously if their gender was removed from the equation, which could be done by using the initial of the first name, and then the surname. I did submit some of my early short fiction for publication under this pen name, but aside from a few semi-pro magazines, I never sold much.

By the time I’d sold my first novel, I’d already established S. Connolly as a non-fiction author. She had a track record and people expected computer, business, and accounting articles from her, as well as books about witchcraft and demonology.  They weren’t expecting family-friendly epic fantasy. When I sold my first fantasy novel I decided to once again go with initials (first and middle this time) and my married surname – S. J. Reisner. My family-friendly pen name was born.

Four years later I started writing an urban fantasy/supernatural mystery novel. It was bloody and contained language. The characters were shady, crass, and not family-friendly. The books were at least Rated R. I didn’t want my fans with milder sensibilities to be turned off by the potty-mouthed curmudgeons, occultists, and criminals of my grittier fiction. Audrey Brice (Audrey after a great aunt) sounded like a solid urban fantasy/supernatural/paranormal/thriller/horror pen name. That’s how I ended up with pen name three.

While writing said gritty supernatural series, I ended up writing a rather provocative scene in one of the novels that my critique group outright rejected. One of my critique partners said,  “It’s too graphic for urban fantasy-mystery. Have you ever considered writing erotica? You’re actually pretty good at it.”

On a whim, I wrote a few erotic romance novellas and a novel, just to get it out of my system. Also on a whim, I tossed them up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble just because – but under a secret pen name because I didn’t want family and friends to know I was writing trashy novels. It turned out my critique partner was right. I was pretty good at writing erotica. So when I started selling tens of thousands of copies, I had to come clean and claim Anne O’Connell. After all, I’m a firm believer you need to own what you write.  Anne, from my middle name JoAnn, and O’Connell being a play on my surname Connolly.

So, that’s how I ended up with the four pen names. About now, most people wonder how I manage all of them.

Aside from the aforementioned habits, I gave up on multiple websites and blogs long ago. Most authors barely have time to maintain one site, let alone four. These days all my domains point to one website.  That website also contains one blog. I password protect the rated X stuff.  I have one Twitter, one Instagram, and one of all the other social media venues an author should have.

The hardest part seems to be keeping regular release schedules for each persona. I do well with three of them, but S. J. Reisner is the one I slack on. My imagination tends toward the grittier fiction with Audrey Brice’s supernatural horror/thrillers at the top of my priority list.

The upside of having four pen names is that I can write whatever I want to write and it will fall into one of the pen names. I’m never bored because I always have four projects to choose from. I can usually get into any event with at least one of the pen names. My readers appreciate my use of pen names because it helps them find what they’re looking for. Many of the readers from one pen name will check out the other three, and will often end up reading across several or all of my pen names.

Yes, having four pen names is a lot of work and takes a lot of juggling, but if I had to do it all over again – I wouldn’t change a thing.

——————–

When she’s not juggling four pen names, Stephanie Reisner spends her free time with her husband and three cats, and a garden full of weird plants.  www. the-quadrant.com

Published As: S. Connolly, Audrey Brice, S. J. Reisner, Anne O’Connell

Recent Novel Releases:

Falling From Grace (Anne O’Connell) (erotic romance, Midnight Fantasy Press)  April 15, 2018

Eagle’s Talon Gray (S. J. Reisner) (sword and sorcery fantasy, Darkerwood Publishing) ISBN:978-1938839085

Thirteen Covens: Bloodlines (Part One) (Audrey Brice) (supernatural thriller, Darkerwood Publishing) ISBN: 978-1938839092

Get freebies and exclusive content – subscribe to my Newsletter(s)

Visit my website for more information, www.the-quadrant.com  [ Four Pen Names, Four Elements ]

Friday Feature – Blogger Lexx Vorpahl

 

Before I begin my introduction, I definitely want to thank Kat for reaching out and asking me to participate in her Friday Feature. Thank you for the opportunity to do so…

So where to begin, Hello there everyone, Lexx here. I am an aspiring author who is currently working on two novels simultaneously while blogging about all things related to writing. My writing journey is an interesting one and I have always enjoyed it for many reasons. On writing:

I like being able to communicate through writing for several reasons:  I like the challenge and the peace it brings to me personally, when I sit down to write I try to articulate my words well (the challenge) I read them aloud to see how they flow together, I get time to ponder a bit before having to spit out uselessness( I am not one for small talk or small thoughts).

I definitely enjoy being able to go over my thoughts and refine them for later use and blogging has been a medium I hadn’t considered for that purpose until now. So, I am liking the process of learning and growing as I continue to blog as often as possible with my chosen subject always present. I also don’t mind sharing with others and blogging is one way I get to share and connect with other people (without having to leave my house, I consider this a plus). I like being able to find like-minded individuals and connecting through our similar interests and thought processes through the blogosphere.

Anyway, more on my writing journey but outside of blogging. To be honest, I am just now beginning to kick things off after years of self-doubt and always listening to other peoples’ words on the subject matter. I beg you now if you love writing, never stop, for a moment. Now is writing easy? Yes and no…Is it easy to become an author? Certainly not, but if it is a goal of yours and something you can’t get out of your mind, don’t stop because of outside influences. Add it to the many goals you want to achieve in life.

This totally applies to other things not just writing, so if you don’t write don’t worry my words still apply. Believe in yourself and find where your passion lies. I don’t think anyone should have to give up something they love to do and sometimes we are told just that! What terrible advice if you ask me, and that sort of advice is best left on the side of the road while you continue driving to your destination. Right now, I am doing just that and so far, I like the scenery.

A bit more about me:

I am a stay at home mom and wife, I homeschool, I’m a Beachbody coach too. I’m also a student and can’t wait to begin a new degree course in August. I love gardening, crochet, and woodworking to name a few things. My husband and I love DIY! We do a lot of different projects together. Life is good. Obviously writing is a passion, and blogging is something I enjoy too. I plan to finish my novels, edit and then publish.  In the meantime, I blog at https://lexxvorpahl.wordpress.com/ you can also catch me over at https://vorpahlismco.wordpress.com/ If you like DIY, cooking, crafty things and more.

you can also find me on Instagram @LexxWrites  https://www.instagram.com/lexxwrites/  or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LexxWrites/

Again, a big thank you to Kat and hey TGIF! Have a great weekend everyone.

Lexx Vorpahl

Friday Feature – Author Cassondra Windwalker

 

I’d like to thank Kat for this opportunity to connect with new readers. I’m Cassondra Windwalker, a dabbler in nearly every genre of writing so far who occasionally even manages to get something published. More to the point, I’m an avid reader myself who strongly believes that the dialogue between reader and writer, between bard and warrior, is what gives any word life. To that end, I’m also grateful to you for indulging me here for a moment.

 

Rilke said something about how the great duty of lovers is to guard one another’s solitudes. The great duty of writers is to find the words that bridge those solitudes, that allow one solitude to commune with another. The writer offers up her invisible parts in a mirror to the reader, who gazes into the glass and finds his own invisible parts there clearly shown. No matter the genre – science fiction, mystery, steampunk, literary fiction, poetry, romance, graphic novels – the stories that persist are the ones that work on unfolding human nature itself, that try to uncover what, if anything, defines the human apart from either the clay or the divine.

 

As a writer, then, the only parts of myself I’m interested in unveiling are the parts that my readers might find secretly familiar: in other words, all of them. I’m ruthless in the display, breathlessly tearing apart bone from sinew from flesh and laying them all bare to be adored or vilified or disregarded. What frightens people is that I am as swift to flay the flesh of others as well as my own, be they a passerby on a city sidewalk or a lover caught in stolen moonlight.

 

It’s not fair at all, but then, there’s nothing fair about love. Love for us mortals is about finding our being in something that we are doomed to lose. We can’t change the ending – it’s the same for all of us. So we have to make meaning in the chapters that we get to write. And I mean to write every chapter that I can, and make ink of all the blood I find.

 

My erotic work of magical realism, Parable of Pronouns, is available for sale now on Amazon in both ebook and paperback formats and is free on Kindle Unlimited at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078RSGM2Y. My psychological thriller/political satire Bury The Lead will be released by Black Spot Publishing this September. You can reach me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CassondraWindwalkerWrites and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WindwalkerWrite.

 

Feature Friday – Author Helen Starbuck

Becoming a Writer

Copyright © 2018 Helen Starbuck, all rights reserved

 

People write for a lot of reasons. Writing for me has always been an escape, a way of dealing with life, and my favorite form of entertainment. The say if you don’t like the way things are, then rewrite your story. I subscribe to that wholeheartedly. My writing career got its first boost when, as a young teenager, I fell in love with Paul McCartney. My best friend and I wrote romantic stories about Paul and Ringo and it was a way to fantasize that was endlessly entertaining. I view those now as my first attempts at writing a romance novel.

Growing up I read voraciously, in fact my mother complained that I needed to put the books down and go out and ‘do something.’ I was doing something, it was just in my head and she couldn’t see it. I was never part of the ‘in crowd’. No matter how hard I tried, I just didn’t fit in. As a result, I wrote about my disappointments, about my desires and my hopes, and about guys I had had crushes on from afar. Writing about this made the lack of social grace and connection more tolerable. I think watching people and studying them, trying to figure out what makes them tick, like I did in high school, helped me write.  I think most writers have this interior life that drives them and that they use to fuel their writing. We grow and learn from other writers who inspire us.

I still watch and listen to people to hear their speech patterns, to listen to their stories, to get a feel for a character. Sometimes it’s quite amusing listening to those around you, like the twenty-something guy on his way into Home Depot talking on the phone who said, “Yeah, man I’m done. I’m having a garage sale and she’s the featured item.” I still laugh when I remember that. What perfect dialogue, his frustration and his humor visible in one line—a line I intend to use in one of my stories.

The urge to tell a story has always been strong for me. I love mysteries and suspense novels and it always helps if there is a little bit of romance to spice things up. I grew up in Colorado and I write a mystery series set in Denver with an OR nurse as the protagonist and narrator. Professionally, I am an OR nurse so I write what I know. I have learned as a nurse to listen to what is said and what is not said. People tell nurses things they rarely tell other people and you get a great sense of the human experience.

My first book, published in October 2017, is The Mad Hatter’s Son, An Annie Collins Mystery. It’s a tale of love, friendship, betrayal, and consequences. Annie Collins, a nurse used to caring for others in the OR, is drawn unwillingly into the chaos that is her long-time friend Libby Matheisen’s life. With puzzling symptoms and a plea for help, Annie wonders whether Libby is really ill or whether there’s more to the story than what Libby is saying. Faced with Libby’s apparent suicide, Annie is beside herself with guilt and unable to stop asking questions to uncover the truth. The answers to these questions don’t come without a price. Faced with a friend’s life that has derailed, pursuing the mystery of her illness and death threatens to derail Annie’s life as well.

The Mad Hatter’s Son is loosely based on a patient I helped take care of years ago. She had very puzzling symptoms and it took her doctors a long time to figure out what the problem was and it was a shocker. The story is not about that patient, but the circumstances are similar. I am working on the second book in the series, No Pity In Death, which I’m hoping it will be published in the fall of 2018, if everything goes according to plan. It’s a continuation of Annie’s story and involves her helping to solve a rash of patient deaths at her hospital.

 

 

 

The paperback and e-book are currently available on Amazon and at the Tattered Cover in paperback. The audio book will be available in late May 2018. You can connect with me on my website www.helenstarbuck.com where you can sign up for my newsletter and read a teaser chapter from the next book. There are hints at the books planned for the series and a link to a radio interview I just did on Clear Creek Radio. You can also connect with me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/helensstarbuck/  and on Twitter @helensstarbuck.

 

Feature Friday – Author Bernadette Marie

MY JOURNEY INTO INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING

By Bestselling Author Bernadette Marie

I suppose my journey into independent publication and the formation of my own publishing house was something I should have seen coming. After all, much like my father, I’m an entrepreneur at heart, and I see opportunity in everything I do.

As it turns out, the publishing industry seemed to play right into my hand in 2009 when I began my journey. It was the dawning of the ebook and the digital book reader. The mass distribution opportunities for independently published authors were becoming a reality, and somehow my timing was just right. I took that plunge to publish my books.

I have been writing stories as long as I can remember. It just so happens that in 2007 I also decided to call myself an author, and things got real. I began to attending conferences and getting involved in writer associations. I got my first bad contract, and that taught me everything I needed to know. I decided from there that I could do everything on my own, and thus my business was born.

I opened my publishing house with the firm belief that I was only “hiding” under a professional name. I took it all seriously and built the business that I knew I needed to publish my books. What I didn’t anticipate was that others would want to have their books published by a smaller house that gave them the individual attention that all authors crave. Gratefully, that all worked out and seven years later, my publishing house is thriving.

The best part about diving into the publishing aspect, it has allowed me to put out over 33 of my own books in the past seven years. I don’t have to go through the process other authors have to to get my books to market.

Writing is my heart beat, literally. The creative process gives me purpose everyday. I feel as if this is my calling, as I never am at a loss for words. At all times, I’m working on at least three projects, which helps me keep my mind fresh and I don’t get stuck on a story. And, anything inspires me–for which I’m super grateful. I can’t imagine not spilling my creativity on the pages of a book. The hardest part is carving the time to write, and this is where I have found the glory of dictation! Talk about the opportunity to get thousands of words out a day–look into that!

Aside from writing and publishing, I also spend a great deal of time educating authors who are looking to break into the market. Though the independent route was the right path for me, what I understand is that it’s not the right path for everyone. Sharing my expertise through workshops, seminars, blog posts, and events is my way of helping each author find their niche in the market. (The industry is big enough for everyone.)

Writing has been in my blood all my life, and the business side, well, I suppose that was in there as well. Growing up, I wanted to be a teacher, so this encompasses that as well.

One of the questions I get all the time is how do I write so many books in a year? My answer isn’t very pretty, but to get words on the page you have to puke them out. Get them out of your head and don’t look back. As authors we always strive for perfection. Well, that’s just not going to happen. So the best lesson I can share with an author looking to get that first manuscript done is to work until it’s done. Don’t go back and edit as your write. It might lose some sense in the middle, but when you have it all out, you can go back and find that. Trust me, it’s a good thing I began writing my first book when I was thirteen, because it took me twenty-two years to finish it. Imagine what I could have accomplished had I learned to puke it out from an early age.

The journey into being a published author is just that, an epic journey. Each person is going to take a different route to get to the destination, and they’re going to reach it by different means. What a glorious opportunity all authors have right now as the industry evolves.

BIO

Bestselling Author Bernadette Marie is known for building families readers want to be part of. Her series The Keller Family has graced bestseller charts since its release in 2011. Since then she has published over thirty-five books. As owner of 5 Prince Publishing and Illumination Author Events, Bernadette enjoys sharing her knowledge of writing and publishing with those who aspire to be part of the literary community.

SOCIAL MEDIA/CONTACT

Email: info@bernadettemarie.com

Website: www.bernadettemarie.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorbernadettemarie

Twitter: www.twitter.com/writesromance

Instagram: www.instagram.com/authorbernadettemarie

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/writerofromance

Family and Lifestyle blog: www.thishouseofboys.com