Author Interview: My Heritage Books

Today I’m in conversation with Rhoda Baxter on her website HERE. We’re talking Heritage Books: which book gifted to me in my early years made such an impression it stayed with me for life, and which I’d like to pass on and why.

Guess which I chose... the clue isn't necessarily in this image.

Discussing which books make an impression in our early years is an interesting concept for an interview, and when a website offers interview spots something out of the norm is needed to draw in readers. It is part of a writer’s marketing strategy and comes under the umbrella of author cross-promotion. It’s the reason Hornsea Writers set up a group website.

Do you read author interviews? What sort of questions do you prefer to see answered? Have you, in fact, a Heritage Book?

If you’re interested, I’ve also been interviewed at Library of Erana and quizzed on a very different set of questions.

Looking Back & Forward To The New Year

It’s often said that looking back offers only a rosy-eyed view, but I think this Yuletide between-time also offers the clearest. Ostensibly we’ve had a week off from our normal hamster-wheel activities – time for a laugh, general bonhomie, relaxation, and a needed deep breath. Assessing where we are comes easier.

Over the past few years problems with my health grew to impinge on normal life and, for my writer side, disrupted my concentration. 2016 was one of physical rehabilitation which has gone well; my concentration is still under review.

I’ve not done too badly. This blog has resumed its weekly posts, I’ve opened a YouTube channel for my video booktrailers, and added substantially to my work-in-progress, Pilgrims of the Pool, the last in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy. But I also discovered a hole in it – that concentration element – which should have been waving warning flags, or was waving warning flags that I failed to see. As a result one of its three storylines needs to be ripped out, re-planned and re-written, and the other storylines dovetailed into it. Such happens, but it needn’t have.

So, high on my Resolutions for this coming year is re-cultivating my concentration, and that means going back to basics and re-learning good habits. I’m a list person, always have been as my memory has never been my outstanding asset. Have list + kitchen timer = better habits. At least that’s the plan.

What’s your plan? And your best habit?

In the meantime I have news! As part of bolstering my public presence – another of my New Year’s Resolutions – I am interviewed on AL Butcher’s Fantasy site Library of Erana talking about my novels, research, writing techniques in general, and the importance of editing. Join me across there, or back here next Saturday. Or if you’d prefer, add your email to the box in the column to have my posts delivered quietly to your Inbox. As I’ve found with the blogs I follow, it makes life so much easier.

See you next week. And may you enjoy a Happy & Successful New Year.

Unaccustomed as I am – Talking About Our Books

On Thursday I’m being interviewed on a local radio station, West Hull FM. Except it is less an interview and more a chat – for an entire hour, including music. The proposed questions have just come through and, of course, top of the list is Tell listeners about your books.

Oh... gosh.

I have nine titles out as ebooks, four of which are also in paperback, these across five genres ranging from Horror to Historical. This doesn’t include the short fiction or non-fiction articles. How to can that into a soundbite?

In truth it’s impossible, but I have to make a stab at it. If you find yourself struggling in similar circumstances, this is how I’ve tackled it.

1) Consider the audience, not just the interviewer. Most of my audience will be within a tight graphical area, so some of my answers need to chime with their local knowledge to help create a rapport. If any know who I am I’ll be highly surprised, so I have to come across as a human being they’d like to share a coffee with.

2) Consider the time of broadcast. Mine is 11am-noon, so most listeners will have the radio on as background to a more important task. I am under no illusion: people will not be hanging on my every word. It’s up to me to intrigue them to listen.

3) Despite the wide-ranging genres, what links the fiction? Being so close, I couldn’t see the wood for the trees, yet there has to be a common denominator, apart from my single brain (cell). Finally I nailed it: in various guises my fiction deals with relationships. Result – I had my over-arcing soundbite.

4) Choose the titles to mention. No listener is going to stay tuned to hear nine book pitches, even less their blurbs. I chose three, crafting them with care and making each longer than the previous so as to lead the listener deeper:

a) an intriguing and easy-to-digest intro which flags a common knowledge

b) a volte-face to catch attention, with touches of a storyline, of what’s at stake, the thinking behind the writing

c) the immediacy of what I’m currently working on, but encompassing a much more complex set of storylines, and finishing on a smile.

Q: Tell listeners about your books

I have nine titles published as ebooks, four of which are also in paperback, straddling five genres ranging from Horror to Historical. What links them is that in various guises my fiction deals with relationships.

My highest selling novel is a Native American Historical, Beneath The Shining Mountains. It has a romance at its heart, but its theme is about taking responsibility for one’s actions. And as we all know, true love never runs smooth.

My latest is a Horror short – Scent of the Böggel-Mann – about a woman who enjoys buying Lots from auctions and re-selling them on Ebay and car boots. Her life unravels when she bids for a locked chest and what it contains puts her husband at risk. Does she disintegrate into tears or fight for her husband’s life? It’s about how strong we truly are, how ruthless can we be, when faced with circumstances out of our norm.

The work-in-progress is the last book of a trilogy of contemporary fantasies – Torc of Moonlight – that begin in Hull, move to York, and this final book has a base in Durham. It’s also my most technically complicated, with three storylines in each book, one of which is fantasy, one straight contemporary, and one historical. Hull is Celtic, York is Roman, and Durham is monastic medieval. So you can imagine the research that goes into these. And my biggest problem is that I write slowly so all this takes forever. 

And there you have it, my sectioned soundbite/s. I can go into more detail about any of the novels, or others, later in the interview. I realise I might cover only the first two paragraphs, but it will be a start. Once this groundwork is laid, other questions I can answer on the hoof. Hopefully.

Update: I've done the deed, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. See if I followed my own instructions HERE (60 mins - but you can fiddle).

A Interview on 'Dreaming' via Cleve Sylcox

It's been a while since I gave an interview, and this week Cleve Sylcox has been good enough to offer me a couple of spots on his Dreaming site, an interview and a book promo. 

Cleve runs a very good Facebook Page Indie Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Promotion and is a formidable author of poetry as well as SF, with the sort out output that makes me want to scuttle under a stone. Perhaps I should just be inspired.

Networking is one of the aspects of a writer's work, and it can pay all sorts of dividends. No sooner had a link to Cleve's interview gone up on his Facebook page, than I had a nudge from The Darker Side of Fiction about a book signing event to be held in Peterborough, UK, in October. 

And here am I, hobbling about on sticks one week out of major surgery. You couldn't make it up, could you? No, you couldn't. Read it properly, Linda. It's Peterborough 2017!!

Back-Blurbs and Interviews

As has probably been noticed by those following this blog (thanks, great to have you along) there's not a lot of creative writing being done at the moment. At least not of the type I enjoy. I am currently formatting The Bull At The Gate for paperback, and that means copywriting the back-blurb. Allow me a quiet arghhhh!!

The thing with a paperback is that it is a solid item. Unlike an ebook, it can't be tweaked at will, so the back-blurb has to be correct first time. It's not a product description which can go into detail about the triple storylines, Roman historical thread, the haunting from beyond a watery grave that may be more than it first appears. It is a short tease, and they can easily sound either cliched or risible. I doff my hat to those who can write them before breakfast, though having searched the Net it would seem that not many can explain the how of what they do.

So when a request to be interviewed on marketing & promotion appeared in my Inbox, I grasped the displacement activity with both hands. It's just been uploaded onto a blog entitled Self Publishing For The Technically Challenged. 

At least it says what it does on the tin. I wish my back-blurb did.

Interviewed: Getting to know the Author

Today I'm being interviewed by Glynis Smy on why I work in more than a single genre, which authors I count as my influences and the odd reasons why, and what happened when I and a couple of friends came upon "the man with the gun".

Hey, I'm still here to tell the tale! Join me to leave a comment or ask a question.