#WriterWednesday Interview with Ashley Earley

I’d like to welcome Ashley Earley to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Things to say to an author: honestly, anything nice. We like criticism, but we also eat up compliments.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “being an author isn’t that hard” or “get a real job.”

Favorite books (or genre): A Court of Mist & Fury by Sarah J. Maas, Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

Books you wouldn’t buy: I’m not a huge historical fiction or sci-fi girlie.

Things you need for your writing sessions: I need coffee/tea, true crime podcasts, and some kind of chocolatey snack.

Things that hamper your writing: loud noises or anyone who chit-chats on the phone nearby while I’m trying to get into my writing groove (aka my boyfriend).

The last thing you ordered online: custom box tape for my author PR boxes.

Words that describe you: goofy, creative, loyal, hard-working, and dedicated.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: workaholic and hyper-stressed.

Favorite smell: It’s a tie between freshly popped popcorn and rain.

Something that makes you hold your nose: cinnamon. While autumn is my favorite season, I do everything I can to avoid cinnamon-scented anything.

Hardest thing about being a writer: avoiding negative book reviews that could hurt your feelings.

Easiest thing about being a writer: being creative when it comes to putting together your book launch.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: I started my own business right out of college.

Something you chickened out from doing: I tend to chicken out of riding crazy rollercoasters because of my fear of heights.

Favorite things to do: I enjoy snowboarding, cozy gaming, cooking, and hiking with my dog.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: I’d do anything to avoid going out in any scenario. I’m a stay at home and watch a movie with my dog kind of girl.

Something you’re really good at: talking myself into buying more books when I have plenty of books to read at home.

Something you’re really bad at: dancing. Can’t do it.

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: I can’t reveal my secrets, but some personality traits of mine and from others in my life have ended up in Heart of Skulls.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: most readers might be convinced that I’m a serial killer after reading Heart of Skulls. I pinky promise I’m not. I just watch a lot of true crime.

About Ashley:

Ashley grew up in Georgia, but, today, she lives in Colorado with her dog and spends her time devouring any book she can get her hands on, writing, and editing for her clients at Earley Editing, LLC.

Her love of reading and writing began at a young age, which led her to graduate with distinction from the University of Colorado Boulder, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She also enjoys snowboarding, exploring, annoying her dog, constantly eating chocolate, and sharing her writing adventures on Instagram. 

Let’s Be Social:

Connect with her on TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms as @ashley_earley and on her website www.ashleyearley.com or reach out at www.earleyediting.com if you’re interested in her editing services! 

What Have You Been Reading This Summer?

What were your favorite summer reads? I love all kinds of books, but I always gravitate to mysteries and thrillers. Lee Goldberg is one of my new favorites.

This summer, I went back and read all of the Michael Connelly books I had missed. I am such a fan of Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer. And I like how his Renee Ballard character is evolving. Now, I am all caught up and can’t wait for the next one.

I am such a fan girl of S. A. Cosby. I love his stories, and I get so excited every time a new one comes out. He is a must read if you like southern suspense.

Some of my favorite cozy mysteries this summer were by Maddie Day, Vicki Delany, Barbara Ross, Mindy Quigley, and Maria DiRico.

What’s your next read?

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Natasha Deen

I’d like to welcome Natasha Deen back to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you never want to run out of: Energy, passion, hope

Things you wish you’d never bought: Society’s ideas about what is worthy/valuable

A few of your favorite things: The creatures and people I love

Things you need to throw out: Mindsets that don’t help me.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Saying, “I’m a writer.”

Hardest thing about being a writer: Everything else

Favorite foods: Depends on my mood.

Things that make you want to gag: I don’t know – I guess it’s how the food would be prepared.

Favorite beverage: Tea

Something that gives you a sour face: Sour patch kids

Favorite smell: My home

Something that makes you hold your nose: My excuses

Things you’d walk a mile for: The creatures and people I love

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Grumpy wasps (redundant, because they’re ALWAYS grumpy).

Things to say to an author: Anything you like to say, just be respectful

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “Hello, I’d like to be fictionally killed off in your next book.”

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: Baking

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: My life

Things you always put in your books: Hope

Things you never put in your books: Please ask me when I’ve written all the books I’ll ever write.

About Natasha:

Guyanese-Canadian NATASHA DEEN is a best-selling author and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal. Natasha’s novels include In the Key of Nira Ghani (Amy Mather Teen Book Award), Spooky Sleuths: The Ghost Tree (School Library Journal Best Books of 2022). Her most recent YA title, The Signs and Wonders of Tuna Rashad was a Globe & Mail's Top 100 Books for 2022. When she’s not writing, she teaches Introduction to Children’s Writing with the University of Toronto’s SCS and spends an inordinate amount of time trying to convince her pets that she’s the boss of the house. Visit Natasha at www.natashadeen.com.

Let’s Be Social:

Website:

#WriterWednesday Interview with Joyce Woollcott

I’d like to welcome Joyce Woollcott to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite things: An old cashmere sweater in a lovely shade of peachy orange. A pale grey linen dressing gown. A lovely red Ted Baker evening dress that’s a bit too small for me and too short but I love it anyway. (Never worn.)

Things you need to throw out: Most of my clothes. But, you know, you think… wait, I might wear that again.

Things you need for your writing sessions: Silence, warmth and coffee.

Things that hamper your writing: Music, TV or chat, being cold, uncomfortable chair…

Hardest thing about being a writer: Always having something to do.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Always having something to do.

Favorite foods: Rare roast beef, pasta, most seafood. Sticky toffee pudding, Banoffe Pie.

Things that make you want to gag: Beetroot, turnip, and… liver––obviously.

Favorite music or song: Van Morrison, Astral Weeks. I know it’s sixties, but it’s not the same…

Music that drives you crazy: Country music, and fifties, sixties and seventies commercial pop. (Sorry).

Something you’re really good at: Someone told me once that I have perfect pitch, a statement my husband vigorously disagrees with.

Something you’re really bad at: Singing, which is strange considering my last statement…

Last best thing you ate: Eggplant Parmesan.

Last thing you regret eating: Three mini KitKats from last Halloween. Yes, really.

The last thing you ordered online: A Belstaff Jacket for my husband.

The last thing you regret buying: One of those little square automatic floor washing robots––but not the Rhoomba, I love that.

Favorite books (or genre): I love mysteries, especially stories set in dark rainy places, or Nordic countries.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Not keen on romance, science fiction, fantasy, true crime, heart-wrenching drama.

People you’d like to invite to dinner: Kate Atkinson, David Hockney, Bill Nighy, Brendan Gleeson.

People you’d cancel dinner on: Bill Cosby, Jeremy Clarkson.

Favorite things to do: Sitting in a quiet, sunny garden with a nice glass of wine, reading a good mystery.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Root canal––obviously.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: Denise Mina, lovely, friendly and chatty, swore like a trooper. Oh, and Lee Child and Ian Rankin too. And Oprah Winfrey was really nice.

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Anderson Cooper wasn’t as tall as I had expected. He seemed very shy.

About Her Latest:

BLOOD RELATIONS

Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner DS Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan’s past, or his present? And who hated the man enough to kill him twice?

Belfast, Northern Ireland: early spring 2017. Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner Detective Sergeant Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career with the Police Service of Northern Ireland was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan’s past, or his present? And who hated the man enough to kill him twice? Is it one of Patrick Mullan’s own family, all of them hiding a history of abuse and lies? Or a vengeful crime boss and his psychopathic new employee? Or could it be a recently released prisoner desperate to protect his family and flee the country? Ryan and Billy once again face a complex investigation with wit and intelligence, all set in Belfast and the richly atmospheric countryside around it.

About Joyce:

J. Woollcott is a Canadian writer born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and BCAD, University of Ulster. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers and Crime Writers of Canada. In 2019 her first novel, A Nice Place to Die,  won the Romance Writers of America Daphne du Maurier Award for Unpublished Mystery and Suspense. In 2021 she was short-listed in the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence. This year, A Nice Place to Die is a finalist in the Killer Nashville 2023 Silver Falchion Awards.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://www.jwoollcott.com

Twitter: @JoyceWoollcott

Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3CGIzi0

Book Link: https://tinyurl.com/mtzxx9dy

It's All About Balance - Tips for Authors

I was involved in some group anthology projects before I started writing novels. For one series, we did almost one hundred in-person and virtual events in about a year and a half to promote the books. It was fun. I enjoyed meeting people and talking about mysteries. But I soon realized a writing life needs balance. With so much travel, there was hardly enough time to write my novel.

Writers have lots of tasks from research and writing to revising and book promotion, and that’s on top of your regular life and responsibilities.

Here are some tips that work for me. There’s no single, magic solution.

• I still have a day gig, so I have to schedule my time. I keep a calendar of key writing events and due dates. I have to stay organized, or the chaos takes over. (I write from 5:00 - 7:30 every morning and then on my lunch hour. If I hit my word goal, then I’m done for the day.)

• Try to write (or revise your work) every day. If you leave your project for a few days, it takes time to get back to the place where you left off.

• To finish a first draft in a reasonable amount of time, I need a daily writing goal. I try my best to hit it. I know if I stick to my schedule, I can have a completed first draft in about two and a half months. I keep a running tally on a sticky note to keep me motivated and to see my progress.

• When you are writing your first draft, just write it. Don’t stop to revise chapters or paragraphs. Make notes and keep going. If you fall into the rewriting trap, it’ll take you forever to finish.

• You can’t just focus on one thing. There are so many tasks for promotion, research, writing, and revising. It’s a lot of work, but you also need to take time for yourself to reenergize. Figure out what works for you. Make sure you exercise and go outside once in a while.

• When I have a new book release, I create a spreadsheet (three months before and three months after). I track all of my online and in-person events, and I make sure I have plenty of time to complete guest blog posts and interviews. Make sure you track all your due dates.

• I hate spending time searching for something I know I have, so for things I want to remember, I make spreadsheets. One has all the blogs, podcasters, book reviewers, and other contacts that I like to follow. I add to this throughout the year, and it helps when I start planning my promotions.

• I also have a spreadsheet of ideas. I used to keep file folders of newspaper and magazine clippings. Now, I keep cool names, interesting locations, weird true crime stories, and names of resources in one document. It makes it so much easier when I’m looking for story ideas.

• Make sure that you’re also reading. It’s important to keep up with what’s popular in your genre. Writers should be avid readers.

What works with your writing style? Let me know what you’d add to my list.

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Jenna Greene

I’d like to welcome author Jenna Greene to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: Tea, mugs for my tea, books to read while drinking tea

Things you need to throw out: All the half-finished craft projects of my child and the hoarding materials of my husband.

Things you need for your writing sessions: A cup of tea (surprise!) a comfy chair or couch, my laptop, and inspiration.

Things that hamper your writing: Being hungry.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Writing. (Imagining events, places, conflicts, settings).

Easiest thing about being a writer: Writing. (Communicating events, places, conflicts, settings).

Words that describe you: Quirky, creative, chatty, curious, loyal

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Loud, quirky, emotional, abrasive, sloppy

Favorite music or song: Anything Broadway! Yay Newsies, Hairspray, Billy Elliot!

Music that drives you crazy: Country music and rap.

Favorite beverage: Tea!

Something that gives you a sour face: Coffee (the smell… ugh!)

Something you’re really good at: Being creative, whether that be through writing, inventing games, drama, or dance.

Something you’re really bad at: Dancing without falling over or crashing into things – but I do it anyway because I LOVE it.

Things you’d walk a mile for: My child. If she needed me, I’d RUN 10,000 miles.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Spiders. (Is there one around?!)

Things you always put in your books: A character discovering something about themselves – learning to do something they couldn’t do before, or discovering a strength they didn’t know they had.

Things you never put in your books: Excessive smut. I’d giggle too much while writing it.

Favorite things to do: Paddle a dragonboat, kayak, or canoe.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Killing a spider.

The funniest thing to happen to you: Okay, there’s too many to list. I’ve accidentally got into someone else’s car, peed on my own foot, got my hair caught in a door jamb, ate a bee, went to work with two different shoes…

The most embarrassing thing to happen to you: See above.

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: Wrote, directed, and choreographed plays and Christmas concerts.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: Anything with junior high students involved.

About Jenna:

Jenna Greene is a YA/ Children’s author from Alberta, Canada. When she isn’t writing or teaching, she enjoys dancing, dragonboating, and napping.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: www.jennagreene.ca

Twitter/X: @jgreenewrites

#WriterWednesday Interview with Mo Moshaty

I’d like to welcome Mo Moshaty to the blog for #WriterWednesday.

A few of your favorite things: Making travel plans, writing when it’s rainy ( I get best horror ideas when it’s gloomy)

Things you need to throw out: The half-written in notebooks and journals I know I’m not going to use.

Things you need for your writing sessions: I need to be better at giving myself time to think. G2 Pens, orange highlighter, a hot tea, a wine or martini

Things that hamper your writing: my cellphone ☹

Hardest thing about being a writer: having far too many ideas to get down, I’m big on world-building so its difficult to make that concise

Easiest thing about being a writer: having far too many ideas to get down – it’s a blessing and a curse

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: helped create a film challenge via Zoom and post pandemic that has been featured on Shudder with three of my colleagues, that recently won a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for 2022

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: created a dark science fiction horror podcast that was pitched to major studios that deflated in production

Something you’re really good at: Napping 😊

Something you’re really bad at: Getting distracted, and then berating myself for procrastination

Words that describe you: Charming, Inquisitive, Passionate

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Self-deprecating, overly sensitive

Favorite places you’ve been: London, England

Places you never want to go to again: The ER in Virginia Beach

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Performed my own original music in London acapella

Something you chickened out from doing: bungee jumping…..a second time!

The funniest thing to happen to you: at my fourth birthday party, I wanted Wonder Woman underoos so badly, and I received them! In my zeal to get them, I tore into my room and put them on, but I stuck myself in one of the leg holes instead of the waistband, I was cutting off my circulation and blacked out.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: That my writing made them cry from it’s beautiful construction

The craziest thing a reader said to you: usually only men write brutal stories like this

Favorite music or song: 80’s and 90s hip hop and dance music

Music that drives you crazy: modern country

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: Scenes of a past relationship and the disposition of an ex made it into my book, Love the Sinner. Of course, I killed the character. 😊

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: Such a tough one. I’ve had someone recently equate me with a character from a short story I had written titled, The Marriage. As Much as I want it to be it isn’t, lol.

About Mo:

Mo Moshaty is a horror writer, lecturer and producer. Flexing her horror acumen, coupled with her additional vocation as a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist, Mo has lectured with Prairie View A&M in Texas as a keynote speaker for Nightmares of Monkeypaw: A Jordan Peele Symposium, with Horror Studies BAFSS Sig for No Return: A Yellowjackets Symposium, with Centre for the History of the Gothic at the University of Sheffield and the University of California for The Whole Damn Swarm: Celebrating 30 Years of Candyman and Final Girls Berlin Film Festival's Brain Binge on Women's Trauma Within Horror Cinema. 

Let’s Be Social: Mo Moshaty

Another Writing Secret - What I Learned about Advice

When I decided that I wanted to write a novel, I bought every book on writing that I could get my hands on. I had quite the collection, and the advice varied greatly. I spent months reading and researching the perfect technique. Then one day, I had an ah-ha moment. I was doing a lot of reading and research, but I wasn’t writing. I was spending all my free time trying to find out the best way to write without developing my own skills. So, I went through all my shelves and weeded through my collection. I kept a few that spoke to me, and the rest went to the Friends of the Library.

Try new things. Learn new techniques, but if they don’t improve your writing process, ditch them and try something else. You have to find what works with your style and your life. When I was reading all the advice books, I was bombarded with outline, don’t outline, write every day, write when you feel like it, make a schedule, set a word count, don’t pressure yourself with daily word counts, use this style, and don’t use that style.

This is what worked for me. Again, if it doesn’t work for you, try another technique. Everyone is different and has his/her own preferences.

Writing is a business, and I needed to treat my work that way. It took me five years to finish my first novel and another two to get it published. I needed to be more productive, and I needed a schedule. I knew that I wanted to be serious about my writing and to have a series. I definitely needed to speed up my process. I outline each book now. I also set daily word count goals when I’m working on the first draft. If I stick with my plan, I can usually finish a complete first draft in 2-3 months. I also don’t edit as I write. I finish the first draft and then move to the editing stage.

Your first draft is not your final draft. It takes a lot of rework and reviews to get it to a publishable state. There are very few writers who can create an almost-perfect manuscript on the first try.

I think it’s important to have a network of writer friends to bounce ideas and questions off of. They are an amazing support group to help you with the disappointments and to celebrate the wins.

Again, writing is a business. Authors are required to maintain social media presences, host events, and promote their books. You need to make sure that one part of the writing life (e.g. writing, researching, revising, marketing, promoting) doesn’t take over and dominate all of your time. It’s a balance.

Remember, your job is to write your next book.