#WriterWednesday Interview with Author Liz Butcher

I’d like to welcome author, Liz Butcher to the blog for #WriterWednesday. Liz hails from Australia.

A few of your favorite things: I love rainy days, music and wine.
Things you need to throw out: An old iPod I’ve had sitting in a draw for the past decade, and some old clothes that I need to accept I’ll never fit into again!

Things you need for your writing sessions: My laptop, my headphones, a bottle of water and oils burning in my diffuser.
Things that hamper your writing: External noise, procrastination, my phone.

Things you love about writing: I love creating people and places and losing myself in their lives. It’s total escapism. I love when you get in the zone and hit that stride where all the words just flow out of you.
Things you hate about writing: When your characters won’t play nice and something about your plot isn’t working.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Avoiding procrastination. I have to work at this every damn day.
Easiest thing about being a writer: You can do it anywhere and everywhere.

Things you never want to run out of: Time.
Things you wish you’d never bought: Any number of clothing items I’ve bought online that looked amazing in the picture and totally didn’t once it was on. I’ll learn, one of these days… (maybe!)

Words that describe you: Intelligent, insightful, creative, optimistic, curious.
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Fickle, pensive, aloof, self-conscious.

Favorite music or song: I have a very eclectic taste in music, but I’m a metal head at heart.
Music that drives you crazy: Country music *shudders*

Favorite beverage: I actually love water! I drink a lot of it. Probably to counteract my love of coffee and wine… love kombucha too! 
Something that gives you a sour face: Cherry cola/Dr Pepper. My husband loves it and I can’t understand why. Also stout.

Last best thing you ate: A crazy indulgent caramel cupcake for my birthday over the weekend.
Last thing you regret eating: A crazy indulgent caramel cupcake for my birthday over the weekend. Ha ha!

Things you’d walk a mile for: My family. An amazing view.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Indecision and mess—both do my head in!

Things to say to an author: “Of course I’d love to leave a review!”
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “What do you actually do?” or “Writing books for a living sounds easy!”

Best thing you’ve ever done: Five rounds of IVF to finally become a mother.
Biggest mistake: Giving someone more chances than they deserved.

About Liz:

Liz Butcher resides in Australia, with her husband, daughter, and their two cats. She’s a self-confessed nerd with a BA in psychology and an insatiable fascination for learning. Liz has published a number of short stories in anthologies and has released her own collection, After Dark, in 2018. Her debut novel, Fates’ Fury released September 2019, soon followed with LeRoux Manor in September 2020.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://lizbutcherauthor.wixsite.com/lizbutcher
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lunaloveliz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lunaloveliz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Liz-Butcher-1394868604152823/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13845425.Liz_Butcher
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/lizbutcherauthor/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00X6XN5O6

#TBRTuesday Lori Rader-Day's THE LUCKY ONE

What I’ve Been Reading…

I finished Lori Rader-Day’s THE LUCKY ONE recently. She is a master of suspense. You need to add this one to your reading list.

I had the pleasure of being on a panel with Lori last year at Malice Domestic, and she is also one of the funniest writers I have met.

THE LUCKY ONE is chocked with lots of twists and turns, and just when I thought I had it figured out, there was another twist. Rader-Day is a wonderful story teller who weaves seemingly different storylines together for a wonderful novel.

What’s up Next

Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch’s THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY (The Plot to Kill America’s 16th President - and Why it Failed).

For more book ideas, follow me on Goodreads and BookBub.

What are you reading on #TBRTuesday?

I Need an Author Website. Where Do I Start?

Authors (Prepublished or Published) need a website. This is your home base. This is where readers, librarians, reporters, and bloggers find you.

When you go to create your site, research other authors in your genre and see how they present their brand. Look at layout, page content, and colors. Your look and feel defines your brand. It should match your writing style and your books. For example, you don’t want a sweet, romantic look if you write horror. Your content and design need to be neat and polished.

You should purchase a URL with your name. Some authors who use pennames have multiple sites, and others combine them into one. If you create multiples, make sure that you can maintain all of them.

You want guests on your website, blog, and social media sites to recognize you. The name should be the same (or similar), and the picture should look like you. If your photo is a flower, it’s hard for readers to make sure they have the right site.

Decide whether you are going to pay someone to design your page or create your artwork. It can be expensive. Make sure you have clear requirements and get estimates. Also make sure you understand what you’re paying for (e.g. just the site, site and maintenance, hosting, etc.) and when you’ll get it. There are also a lot of services out there that have build-your-own websites for different prices. I’ve used Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress. There are lots of how-to instructional videos on YouTube if you want details on a specific service.

You need to keep your website current and find ways to drive traffic to it. Your social media sites are great, but if you’re blocked or the company shuts down, you have no way of contacting your followers. Your website should work in conjunction with your email list and social media sites as part of your marketing strategy.

If you do not have a lot of published works, you may consider starting a blog on your site. This will give you fresh content and drive interested readers to your site. Blogs also let you showcase your interests or elements of your books (e.g. cooking tips, crafting, writing tips, book reviews, traveling, etc.). You should have a regular schedule for posting. Blogs can be a lot of work, but they can help you keep readers returning to your site.

Here’s what you need to get started:

1. Make sure that you have a professional headshot that you can use for your promotions and books. Selfies don’t look professional. Save those for casual candids in your social media posts.

2. Make a Press Kit or About You page. It needs your photo, contact method, and a short biography. Make sure you keep your biography current. Many website templates have forms that guests can fill out, and it will send you an email notification without publishing your email address or contact information on the website.

3. Make sure your social media links are on your site. Most webpage templates have an option to include them on every page.

4. If you have published books, make sure to include them. Some authors put their latest on the home page, and then create a book page that shows their books in order by series.

5. Most website templates have a feature that you can add to allow readers to subscribe to your newsletter. If you have an email list, you need to include this on your website. (When you configure the feature or widget, you’ll need to connect it to the site that contains your email list.) I use MailChimp.

6. Most websites allow you to have a tab or link to multiple pages. Make sure the links are in the order that you want them and that the labels are understandable to readers. You also want to keep the labels short. Many readers are accessing your site with a phone or mobile device.

7. When you’re done with your site, check it out on your laptop and mobile devices. Most website templates are mobile friendly and will adjust to fit the screen the person is using. You want to make sure that yours does since most users access websites with mobile devices that have smaller screens.

8. Test all of the links and forms on your site. Make sure they work. You don’t want to miss email subscriptions or contact requests, and broken links frustrate users.

9. Put your website URL and your social media links in your email signature. You never know who will be interested enough to check out your site.

#ThisorThatThursday with Author Kate Fellowes

I’d like to welcome author Kate Fellowes to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday.

A few of your favorite things: Old photo albums, my keeper shelf of books, my Christmas village.
Things you need to throw out:  Duplicate copies of manuscripts, clipped articles I’ll never read, my dresses from Prom.

Things you need for your writing sessions: A good pen, a view of the lake—and an outline.
Things that hamper your writing: Time squeeze, interruptions, too much on my mind.

Things you never want to run out of:  Chocolate
Things you wish you’d never bought: Chocolate

Favorite beverage: Coffee, not too weak, not too strong
Something that gives you a sour face: Beer

Something you wish you could do: Play the piano
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Find my way around a hospital

The last thing you ordered online: Another charm for my bracelet
The last thing you regret buying: Sneakers from the clearance rack.

Things you’d walk a mile for: Lunch with a friend
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Whistling

Things you always put in your books: Characters talking over a meal
Things you never put in your books: Animal abuse or putting them in jeopardy.  The cat will never be kidnapped.

Favorite places you’ve been: London, on our honeymoon
Places you never want to go to again: State Fair

Favorite things to do: Read—any time, anywhere
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Yardwork

Best thing you’ve ever done: Becoming a vegetarian
Biggest mistake: Waiting so long to do it!

#TBR Tuesday - What I've Been Reading - Ellen Bryon and Harlan Coben

The pandemic and the stay-at-home orders have helped me get a jump on my Goodreads Challenge 2020. I have a TBR (To Be Read) shelf in my office, and there’s a stack of library books on my night stand. I’m going to try to be better about sharing what I’m reading and enjoying.

My mystery/thriller bookcase has turned into two in my new office, and the books are spilling over into the cubby shelves of my craft area. I have a feeling it won’t be long until it’s all books.

I like lots of genres, but I always gravitate to mysteries, suspense, and thrillers. I don’t always start at the beginning of a series, especially if I found a new author at the library, but if I like it, I try to go back and catch up on what I missed.

My TBR Shelf at the Moment…

Here’s What I’ve Been Reading Lately

I love Ellen Byron/Maria DiRico. Her mysteries are funny, and the characters are quirky. I’m finishing her Cajun Country Mystery series. They are well worth it. These are great summer reads. I love the Louisiana flare and all of the bayou traditions. Her characters are fun, and the mysteries have lots of twists. I read Body on the Bayou, Mardi Gras Murders, and Fatal Cajun Festival recently.

Check out her new series as Maria DiRico. The Catering Hall Mystery series is set in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, NY. I look forward to reading more. (I love her grandmother and the cat.)

Recently we watched The Five on Netflix, and I hadn’t read much by Harlan Coben. This spring, I started his Myron Bolitar series. I’ve read Deal Breaker and Drop Shot. I like his edgy characters and the thrillers set in the world of a sports agent. The stories are action-packed, and I like the twists and turns that snake through every chapter. I’m watching The Stranger on Netflix and still trying to piece together all the different storylines.

What’s up Next

Right now, I’m reading Lori Rader-Day’s The Lucky One.

For more book ideas, follow me on Goodreads and BookBub.

What are you reading on #TBRTuesday?

There's So Much out There? Where Do I Start with My Author Platform?

Social media and book marketing can be overwhelming. There is a lot out there, and it takes time to build and maintain your sites and followers. When I got my first contract, I had no idea how much marketing and promotion were involved. Here’s my advice to new and sage authors:

1. Start small. Start with the sites that your readers are on. My primary sites are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But I do have accounts on Goodreads, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Bookbub, and Amazon.

2. Schedule some time daily to log on, post, share others’ posts, and build your followers. Readers like to interact with authors. All of your posts shouldn’t be “buy my book.”

3. Post photos of your hobbies, pets, or travel. Post comments or questions that give your followers a chance to interact. Post photos of you doing research or other activities.

4. When you mention or include photos of others, make sure to tag them in the post. You want people to like, comment, and share. If you attend a class, workshop, or conference, take a picture and tag the presenters.

5. There is scheduling software that you can use for Facebook author pages, Twitter, and Instagram. This helps me line up my plan for the week. I usually do my scheduling for the next week on one day.

6. Set up your social media sites and website before you are published. It takes some time to build an audience of followers.

7. Authors need to have a website with their unique URL. This is your brand and home base for your activities. There are lots of services out there where you can build your site from templates. (I’ve used Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress.) I like that I can update my site when I want. If your visitors see old or outdated content, they rarely come back. (If you’re not sure how to use services like this, check out YouTube. There are lots of good instructions.)

8. Make sure that your website and social media sites have the same look and feel. That means your color palettes and graphics look the same or similar. Make sure you have a professional headshot, so readers can identify you. Make sure your name is easily identifiable.

9. Find other authors in your genre and look at their sites. Do your colors and graphics match your writing style? I received some good feedback on my website from a publicist. (My first published story was in an anthology that had red and black on the cover, so I used those as my primary colors on my first website.) After my first novel came out, she said that my books are light and funny, and that I should stick to pastel colors.

10. Set small goals. Make sure you have interesting content to post regularly (or schedule). Then focus on one site each week to build your followers. Follow other authors in your genre and their followers. Make sure that you interact with posts and answer questions. Your numbers will grow organically as you participate more.

It takes a while to build your audience. The more you interact and post interesting things, the more you’ll see your numbers grow. It can be overwhelming, but working on your social media reach a little at a time will pay off. (I started off with three Twitter followers.)

Let’s Be Social:

Newsletter

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Goodreads

Amazon

Pinterest

LinkedIn

BookBub

YouTube

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Maddie Day/Edith Maxwell

I’d like to welcome one of my favorite mystery authors to the blog this week for #ThisorThatThursday. Welcome to Maddie Day/Edith Maxell!

Thanks for inviting me over, Heather! I want to preface my answers by saying that, “My adult sons” could have been the answer to quite a few of the questions, but that would have gotten tiring. Still, it’s true, and they both live too far away for frequent visits.

Things you love about writing: When I feel like I’m channeling my characters. I write down what they do and it surprises me – that’s the magical part of writing. It doesn’t happen every day, but when it does, it’s what keeps me going.
Things you hate about writing: The middle of the book. Every time!

Hardest thing about being a writer: Having to promote my own work. It’s hard to keep finding gentle ways to say, “Please buy my book.”
Easiest thing about being a writer: Hearing from readers who say how much they love my stories.

Words that describe you: Persistent, hard-working, a great cook.
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Cute. The lifelong plight of being short and having a young-looking face.

Favorite beverage: Bourbon
Something that gives you a sour face: Kombucha. Can’t stand the stuff!

Last best thing you ate: My own rhubarb cheesecake
Last thing you regret eating: I was visiting my son in Puerto Rico just before the shutdown, and I wanted to order something local for breakfast. The pulled pork omelet was way too heavy, especially for a beach morning. I should have stuck with mangos and pineapple!

Things you’d walk a mile for: A sun-warmed ripe tomato, locally grown peaches, and dark chocolate ice cream. [And my sons.]
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Less than perfectly fresh raw squid, and beets.

Things you always put in your books: Characters who care about each other, and descriptions of delicious food.
Things you never put in your books: Graphic violence, explicit sex

Things to say to an author: Your book got me/my mother/my BFF through a really hard time/waiting in the hospital/my father’s illness.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I have this great idea for a book but I don’t have time to write it. Can we work together?

Favorite places you’ve been: Sequoia National Park. Any beach. The mountains of western Puerto Rico. Pasadena, California, my birthplace.
Places you never want to go to again: The Miami airport. Los Angeles freeways.

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): Michele Obama, Sara Paretsky, and my 93-year-old uncle Richard Reinhardt, a San Francisco author and brilliant, delightful man. [And my sons.]

People you’d cancel dinner on: Decline to say – I’d have to get political.

Things that make you happy: Sitting on my deck with a good mystery and a gin and tonic. Also watching my tomato plants grow. [And my sons.]
Things that drive you crazy: Right now? People in public in close quarters but not wearing masks.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Solo hitchhiked in northern Japan – with no bad consequences.
Something you chickened out from doing: When I was a (very short) kid, I climbed to the top of the high dive at our town pool. It looked way higher from up there than from below, and I was scared to jump. The line of kids waiting on the ladder weren’t happy with me climbing back down.

About Maddie/Edith:

Agatha Award-winning author Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she pens the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. With twenty-one books in print and more in production, Maxwell lives north of Boston, where she writes, gardens, and cooks. Find her at EdithMaxwell.com and on social media:

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

About Her Latest:

Robbie Jordan temporarily leaves Pans ’N Pancakes, her country store in South Lick, Indiana, to visit Santa Barbara—where wildfire smoke tinges the air, but a more immediate danger may lie in wait.

While looking forward to her high school reunion back in California, Robbie Jordan’s anticipation is complicated by memories of her mother’s untimely death. At first, she has fun hanging out with her old classmates and reuniting with the local flavors—avocados, citrus, fish, and spicy Cali-Mex dishes. But when she gets wind of rumors that her mother, an environmental activist, may not have died of natural causes, Robbie enlists old friends to clear the smoke surrounding the mystery. But what she finds could make it hard to get back to Indiana alive . . .

Buy Links:

Amazon, B&N, Bookshop.org

Guard Your Writing Time!

24 Hours - 1,440 Minutes - 86,400 Seconds - That’s what we have each day. Life is busy and hectic, and there are lots of obligations and distractions. Writers, you need to guard your writing time. It is so easy to fill up time with other things. If you’re going to be a productive writer, you need to write. Here are some ideas that help me.

1. Schedule your writing time. If it’s on my calendar, I am more likely to do it. This also keeps me from filling the space with other tasks.

2. Being a published author requires writing, editing, revising, book marketing, book promotions, blogs, websites, and events. The list goes on and on. It is easy to get lost in all the tasks. Your job is to write your next book. Make sure you balance all your writing work with life.

3. When I’m working on my first draft, I track my daily word count (on a Post-it). This helps me hit my daily goals. For me, the daily number is enough to keep me motivated.

4. I now schedule time in the mornings to do other writing tasks likes blogs, emails, website updates, and social media posts. I was blending this with my writing time, and I was doing more “other stuff” than writing.

5. When you get off track, don’t beat yourself up. Life happens, and it’s often messy. Just figure out how to get back on track.

6. Set goals for each day. They don’t have to be lofty. I attended a workshop recently by Dana Kaye and Sisters in Crime. She recommended that you have daily goals to keep you organized and focused.

7. When you don’t feel like writing, try to write something. When I hit a brick wall, sometimes, it’s easier to schedule social media posts or write a blog. If not, I do something else. Usually physical activity helps me clear my head and my roadblock.