![]() Tell us about your book Under the Squatting Eagle is a tale based on the travails of working in the blue collar world. Anyone who's ever been trapped in a blue-collar job, particularly one involving public service, probably has had enough in the way of similar tribulations to fill a book of their own. My experiences covered thirty-six years with the U.S. Postal Service which provided plenty of fertile ground for a book of 3,000 pages if I'd had the energy to write it. What inspired you to write the story? Inspiration for "Squatting..." came from my wife, Arleen, who'd listened to my frequent bellowings over a great many workplace incidents and thought I should write about them. I balked at the idea at first; there had been so many negative events during my career, which spanned the era of post office shootings, that I simply wanted to erase my work life from the map of a day's events and ease into a lazy after-hours mindset. We were all looking over our shoulders back then, waiting for the day the pressures of the place--which were many--might drive one of our workmates over the edge. But Arleen convinced me that I should try to look at the smaller frustrations of the unique USPS environment through the squinted eyes of raucous laughter rather than the reddened eyes of rage. She was right, of course, as was her message that the important aspects of life are found not on the smoky battlefields of our professional lives, but within the fortresses of our private realms where those we hold most dear reside. Is this your first work of fiction? If not, please tell us a little about your first book/series. Under the Squatting Eagle is my second published book. The first, a young adult novel titled Russell's Revenge, was released by Dragonon in 2005. Dragonon was a start-up conventional publisher who, unfortunately, didn't last long. Rights to the book were returned to me in 2008. I took another look at it, didn't like what I saw, and it will soon reappear under Booktrope's banner, much revised and re-titled The Bully and Emily Dickinson. A sequel to TB & ED exists in outline form which I hope to have ready within a year or so, no later than summer 2016 if all goes well. Who is your primary audience for series? Under the Squatting Eagle is a one-time effort targeting adults looking for a laugh. While my YA effort, The Bully and Emily Dickinson, will hopefully have the sequel I've outlined, I'm not really a series writer--at least not yet. But then I do have to consider the experience of crime novel author Jack Kerley, who once told me he didn't want to do anymore books based on the two detective protagonists his publisher, Dutton, had insisted he use in his first three-book contract. To date, he's written eleven novels with those same characters, Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus. The message in Jack's journey appears to be that an ongoing series can be a venue for creating a loyal following, and you've got to go with what works; Carson and Harry have become two of Jack's best friends, even if they only exist in Jack's fertile mind and on the printed page. Please tell us about yourself. Well, let's see--I'm a native Northwesterner, a very lucky situation for me as I've always been in love with this region not simply because it's home, but because of its diversity of climate, terrain, and people. I even like the rain. During the Vietnam War I decided the best way to dodge the Draft was to enlist. That tactic worked to perfection and I wound up serving four years with the Air Force prior to returning to the Postal Service. My wife Arleen and I were married far too young, but she managed somehow to put up with me for forty-two years. I treasure her memory. We had one son, who is currently a businessman living in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife and my three grandchildren. Have you been writing for a long time? I've been hacking away at this dream of gaining literary relevance far too long, but I can't seem to help it. It all started in the mid-1970's with a particularly awful novel a friend lent me which later became a made-for-television movie--also awful but probably lucrative for the author. I figured if that writer could do it, there was no reason I couldn't. There were initially many reasons I couldn't, of course, the first being a complete lack of knowledge as to how to put a story together. But several creative writing classes resulted in a few successful magazine articles, which were enough of a dangled carrot to keep me pounding away at it. I imagine I'll continue writing as long as I'm vertical. It's just too much fun to consider quitting. How much time per week do you spend writing/editing your work? I don't really follow a writing schedule, although most successful authors recommend that practice. A shaky guess would be that I'm involved in the composition segment of the process at least twenty hours per week, but I'm quick to back away if my mood isn't right and what I'm turning out is enough to make me gag. Editing is another story. Once I reach "The End" the first time around, I carry the manuscript everywhere I go and plod through it every free moment, looking for better ways to write each sentence but still somehow managing to miss typos--which means I must do it again--and again... It may be a mania of some type, but I know I'll still find things I'd like to change in "Squatting..." next time I shuffle through it. So maybe I should just leave it on the shelf and be glad someone liked it well enough to publish it. What are you working on at the moment? I've spread my efforts over three genres, adult humor, young adult fiction, and now mainstream mystery. I began the novel I'm working on now several years ago with only a locale in which I wished to stage the story and a character type I wanted for my protagonist in mind. Four hundred pages later, I'm still wrestling with plot issues and the intricate details of just how a small town police force approaches dealing with a serial killer, given their smaller budget, skeletal workforce, etc. Accuracy and detail are important factors, so I've interviewed one detective already and plan to do so again when I think I have all my questions listed. After this book is finished, it will be back to YA--maybe. We'll see. Whatever the project, though, writing it will be an absolute hoot.
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![]() Thank you Jae for taking time to answer all my nosy questions about you and your new work of art! Q: Tell us about your book: This novel is historical fiction set in the John Day Valley of eastern Oregon. Q: What inspired you to write the story? The inspiration came from the story of my ancestors who came to the area in the 1800s. Two of my great grandmothers were on the same wagon train, sisters-in-law. Sarah, who was 16 in 1869, told and retold the story of the crossing which included the story of her brother disappearing at the time when Indians were in the area. Her sister-in-law, Sarah Ann, was widowed by his disappearance and came on west with her three children. I often heard Sarah's story, but little about Sarah Ann's. The novel is what I imagined her life might have been. The story is my imagination, although I incorporated much of what I knew of the area where I grew up Q: Is this your first work of fiction? If not, please tell us a little about your first book/series. This is my first book of fiction. I have a number of unpublished short stories in the same genre. They may become book 3 in a series that follows By the River. Q: When I read the books I see subjects, themes and story lines that could appeal to many different kinds of readers. Who is your primary audience for series? My audience would surely be those readers who love historical fiction, as do I. People who live in the central and eastern areas of Oregon would pick up the book because they would have an interest in this part of the state. Sarah Ann is a character who stoically faces adversity, but becomes her own woman in midlife. The reader will grow to care for her as she shares her pioneer spirit and determination in rearing nine children and facing the last quarter of the 19th century. Q: Please tell us about yourself. I grew up in the John Day Valley on a ranch near Prairie City. My parents and my grandparents were all born and buried there. All eight great grandparents came there in covered wagons in the late 1800s. As an only child I overheard the stories and gossip of our families. They were just bits and pieces that I did not forget so they are triggers for my storytelling. I always wanted a large family. It sounded like lots of fun to me. To make that happen, my husband and I adopted four beautiful children. Yes, then the fun began! Q: Have you been writing for a long time? I have always liked to write. I can open drawers and find stories from one phase of my life or another, from third grade through college. I have always loved playing the piano, but long ago realized it would be "for my own enjoyment" as people say. I took up painting. Again, it was so enriching and I learned about lights and shadows, etc. The pictures looked nice, but they did not look like I intended. Bright airy flowers in my mind became layered pallet knife paint on the canvas. About that time I said to myself, "Paint and music control me, but I know I can take control of the written word." It's harder to do than I thought, but I am doing it now. Q: How much time per week do you spend writing/editing your work? I do not set an exact amount of time to write daily. Sometimes it is a few minutes and other times I sit at the computer until I feel paralyzed. Lots of time is spent thinking and recalling things. I could really consider this part of my writing. Q: What are you working on at the moment? Right now I am working on a second book in the By the River series. It is inspired by a wonderful pack of letters discovered in the attic of the original ranch house. After it are plans for the short stories set in the 1940s, same area of the John Day Valley. Last on my list is a story inspired by my husband's great, great, great, grandfather who lived to be 116 and fought in the French Indian War and was later scalped in the American Revolution. I had better get busy because I can hardly wait to get to it. Jae Carvel
![]() Vivid by Andrea Murray was absolutely electrifying! How can I say more? There were some definite lightning strikes of genius found within the pages of this paranormal YA fiction. Girls will be girls and the teenaged girls in this book were no exception. The story is riddled with the high drama and emotional chaos that comes with typical teen girls. From the mean girls in the popular group to the lackey bullies; even Vivian and her best friend Abby are extremely emotionally driven. What I didn't expect, and was more than pleasantly surprised to find, were the naturally good and decent young men showcased in the book. Both Easton and Cooper were genuinely good guys. The other striking jewel in the book was the pure friendship Vivian and Abby shared. Most of the book was spent on character development and build-up and while the angst of high school life isn't for me, the author did a good job of keeping the story flowing through the developmental stages. I must say I was uncomfortable with the use of such strong language in a YA book but it seemed to mellow out as the story progressed. The flow to a progressively more complex and convoluted story line was easy to follow because of the easy way it came on. Vivian's powers over electricity are, of course, the star of the show and from the get-go she was using them, to influence her surroundings. She was however, reluctant to have her powers become public knowledge and had a clever way to make sure her secret stayed safe. I really liked her superpower and the familial way it was passed down. This first book in the trilogy has definitely intrigued me and kept me wondering, how and why and what will happen next. Vicious and Vengeance are the remaining books in the trilogy and also available on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Vivid-Trilogy-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00PL93JRG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 Andrea Murray has been teaching English for longer than most of her students have been alive. She has taught everything from junior high language arts to concurrent credit freshman composition. She lives in a very small town in Arkansas with her precocious daughter, energetic son, and racecar-driving husband. When she isn't writing or reading novels for her students, she's probably watching reality television or cheesy science fiction movies. In addition to the Vivid Trilogy, she has also written Omni, her new YA dystopian romance. Buy her novels on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. Learn more about the books and the author behind them at: byandreamurray.com ![]() Duet for Three Hands, a novel set in the post-emancipation South is a poignant tale of the complexities of love, family and cultural norms. Though the novel is set in the American South during the prohibition era, plantations and speakeasies are absent from the story and in their place the reader is given a fresh look into this time in American History. The story opens with Nathaniel Fye, a famed concert pianist, lured and beguiled, like an innocent lamb, by the beautiful and ambitious Miss Francis Bellmont. Francis is a complicated character that, along with her father, and the prejudice of the culture, wreak havoc in the lives of the other, more saintly characters who refuse to let cultural norms cloud their emotions. After marrying into the Bellmont family, Nathaniel quickly learns that Francis' beauty is only skin deep the family's secrets are deeply troubling. Nathaniel bonds with Francis' younger brother, Whitmore, a like-minded artist soul, who is secretly in love with the dark-skinned maid's daughter, Jeselle. Mr. Bellmont is a violent man who seems to leave the help and children alone and takes all his rage and anger out on his wife, Claire, the patron saint of the book. Nathaniel's career is ruined in one of the book's pivotal moments and he is forced to take on a new profession as an instructor at a women's college. An unlikely widowed student enrolls in a summer class and challenges Nathaniel's ideals and beliefs that his career is over. He finds hope in the promise of his protégé. In a crescendo of events, fueled equally by love and hate, the student and teacher are compelled to try and help Whitmore and Jeselle escape the murderous prejudice of the south. It was an intriguing read that I can whole-heartedly recommend to anyone who likes epic Antebellum tales of love and heartache. Visit author Tess Thompson at: http://tesswrites.com/ About Tess Tess Thompson is a mother and writer. She’s also a Zumba dancing queen, though the wearing of the crown is reserved for invitation-only appearances. Her creative life began as an actress, director and playwright but found her true calling in narrative fiction, specifically Women’s Fiction. She wrote her first novel when her youngest daughter was a baby, working in the early morning hours and during nap time. Emerson, now eight, was a good napper. Tess has released seven novels since then. The first of these, Riversong (Booktrope Editions), went on to become #1 on Barnes and Noble’s Nook Book chart in October 2011. Two years after its release, readership of Riversong continues to grow, spending weeks in the top 100 Kindle bestsellers; it’s known amongst her friends and family as “the little book that could.” Caramel and Magnolias, the first in the Legley Bay Collection was released in the fall of 2012. In May of 2013 Tess released the sequel to Riversong called Riverbend and the third in the collection, Riverstar, in August 2013. Tea and Primroses, the second in the Legley Bay Collection was released February 16, 2014. The first in the Blue Mountain Collection, Blue Midnight was released June 30, 2014. Her first historical fiction, Duet for Three Hands, was released February 15, 2015. She’s currently working on the second in the Blue Mountain Collection, Blue Moon, which will be released August 2015.. Like her characters in the River Valley Collection, Tess hails from a small town in southern Oregon. She currently lives in a suburb of Seattle, Washington with her two young daughters, ages 11 and 8, who keep her busy and often confused. Although currently single, Tess has not given up on finding a love story of her own. Until her prince arrives, she’s content creating what she hopes are epic, page-turning love stories with a little suspense and mystery for additional spice. She writes in her home office six days a week, sipping countless cups of herbal tea, with two naughty but adorable kittens, Mittens and Midnight, at her feet. But hopefully said Prince arrives soon to save her from becoming a bitter, crazy cat lady. Did she mention how adorable the kittens are? Tess loves to hear from you. Drop her a line or visit her Facebook Fan Page or follow her on Pinterest or twitter. ![]() Q: Tell us about your book Seven Weeks to Forever is a young adult metaphysical romance--at heart, a love story. It follows eighteen-year-old Cassidy Jordan and nineteen-year-old Riley Davis as they get to know and begin falling for one another, each against their will. Cassidy is what's known as a "second-timer," living a second life with the purpose of finding and helping Riley. She was forced into having this second life after her first life was cut short, and she knows this life is supposed to end just seven weeks after she finally finds Riley. Without giving too much away, Seven Weeks to Forever is about love versus fear and the power of young love, and it looks at life and death--or in this case, what Cassidy knows as The Before and The Life-After--in a way that's a little different from how many of us usually think of these. Q: What inspired you to write Seven Weeks to Forever? Many of us have experienced the passing of a loved one or friend: Some of them after what we perceive to be a long, full life, and some of them at an age that seems very young. When someone dies, and especially when someone dies at a young age when they had so much life ahead of them, I think it makes you look for reasons. I wanted to create a different way of looking at what we typically think of as life and death, and to propose a reason for why some people seem to leave this life at an age we think of as being far too young. As the novel took shape in my mind, there was something about the power of young love and how that love could break you or heal you, combined with these concepts of life and death, which made the story of Cassidy and Riley come together. Q: Is this your first work of fiction? If not, please tell us a little about your first book/series. Seven Weeks to Forever is my second published novel. My first novel is Rock Star's Girl, which is the first book in the "A Hollywood Dating Story" series. The second book in that series, Hiding Out in Hollywood, will be out later this year. Both Rock Star's Girl and Hiding Out in Hollywood are chick lit. I describe Rock Star's Girl as a sassy and sarcastic look at what happens when one young woman's personal life starts making tabloid headlines, after she's asked out on a date by a prolific singer from a well-known band while out at a concert supporting one of her friends. It explores the other side of the entertainment news headlines: How half-truths and moments captured out of context can lead to reputation-destroying rumors, and how some people will stop at nothing to become famous. Those are my published books, and they're both available from Booktrope. My first book, though, was one that I wrote when I was 9 or 10 years old that was a birthday present for my mom. Q: Who is your favorite character in the book and why? This is a tough one, since I've spent so much time with these characters and feel like they're all old friends. It's really hard to decide between Cassidy, Riley, and Noah. Today I'll say Noah, since I loved writing the exchanges between him and Cassidy--especially the times when he wasn't afraid to push Cassidy's buttons. Cassidy is pretty sarcastic and she pretends to think of Noah as her warden, or as a block between her and information she needs, but deep down, she's grateful for him. While I was writing Seven Weeks to Forever, all this backstory about Noah's life in The Before came to mind. You don't get to learn much about his life before he was an advisor in Seven Weeks to Forever, but I've considered writing a prequel to tell Noah's story. Q: Please tell us about yourself. In a few words: Kundalini-yoga-loving and hockey-obsessed Canadian expat and LA girl. If writing is my first love, Kundalini yoga is right up there with it and is a huge part of who I am. It pops up in Seven Weeks to Forever and Rock Star's Girl, and it's also in Hiding Out in Hollywood. If it's hockey season and I'm not writing or at a Kundalini yoga class, I can usually be found cheering on the L.A. Kings. I grew up in Canada: I was born in Thunder Bay, and then lived in Ottawa for a few years while I completed a journalism degree and an MA in English. Then I moved to Silicon Valley for a couple of years, and then to L.A. about five years ago. L.A. is where I'd wanted to live since I was 10, and I still wake up every day absolutely thrilled to be here! Q: Have you been writing for a long time? I've been writing since before I knew how to spell and write down words! There's a line in my author bio that says I've been writing since the day I picked up a navy blue Crayola and began scribbling on my parents' freshly painted white walls. This is a true story. Thankfully, my parents have always been incredibly encouraging and supportive of my writing. They're my biggest fans. Before I knew how to write things down myself, I'd tell them stories and they'd write them down for me. Q: How much time per week do you spend writing/editing your work? This often depends on the week. I try to spend at least an hour a day writing or working on edits of my work, and it's usually at least a few hours on weekends. When I'm deeply into writing something or in the revisions phase, I'll wake up at 4:30 a.m. and work on that for two hours before getting ready for the rest of my day. The most important thing for me is to write something every day, whether it's writing for hours, or carving out ten minutes or half an hour at a time throughout the day. Q: What are you working on at the moment? I'm finishing up Hiding Out in Hollywood right now, along with working on my fourth novel, which is a YA romance. I keep going back and forth on it, though, since it may work better as new adult! So I may end up setting the 25,000 words I've written of it aside, then start back at the beginning and write a new adult novel instead. I'm also a book editor, so I've been busy working on some great manuscripts by other authors. Thank you for a fun interview! |
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