#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Tricia Copeland

I’d like to welcome Tricia Copeland to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: Photos of my family

Things you need to throw out: Unused spiral bound notebooks from my kids’ school days

Things you need for your writing sessions: Some sort of hydration, water or Die Coke

Things that hamper your writing: Noise

Favorite foods: Pizza, dark chocolate brownies, and does Diet Coke count?

Things that make you want to gag: Brussel sprouts, beets, and collard greens

Favorite beverage: Did I mention Diet Coke?

Something that gives you a sour face: coffee

Something you’re really good at: running

Something you’re really bad at: anything with a ball associated with it

Things you’d walk a mile for: time with family and friends

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: talking about politics

Things you always put in your books: happy endings, mostly happy endings but sometimes I leave a couple things undone…

Things you never put in your books: graphic violence and erotica

Things to say to an author: I loved character x because y

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Will you put me in one of your books? You think I’m kidding but I did this to my mom, as sort of a joke, but not really. 😉

Favorite places you’ve been: Maui and Kauai, Hawaii

Places you never want to go to again: Wow, tough one, driving cross country with three kids under thee was not fun especially through desolate Kansas.

Favorite books (or genre): Genres: romance, fantasy, and historical fiction

Books you wouldn’t buy: horror and erotica

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: Does drying flowers count? I have two vases I am very proud of and dried sunflowers in the works.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: I tried to make bagels once and they did not work, were hard as rocks when I finished.

One driven woman. Five passionate paths to the perfect love.

Chloe refuses to compromise when it comes to romance and success. Powering through her sophomore-level college business classes, she’s done with the effort of distance-dating her high-school sweetheart. But when he proposes just as she hits it off with a hunky basketball player, she worries following her heart could send her bright future to the bench.

As Chloe matures to become a rising star in the fashion industry, love knocks another four times. But while each potential suitor eventually pops the question, only she knows her ultimate happy ending.

Whose arms will embrace Chloe when she chooses her forever man?

Perfect is a standalone clean contemporary romance. If you like tender moments, lighthearted comedy, and endings you choose yourself, then you’ll adore Tricia Copeland’s option-filled tale.

Perfect is “A sweet take on what’s important when it comes to finding the perfect kind of love.” - Christina Benjamin, author of the best-selling young adult romance novels, The Boyfriend Series

Get Perfect to pick your ideal walk down the aisle today!

About Tricia:

Tricia believes in finding magic. She thinks magic infuses every aspect of our lives, whether it is the magic of falling in love, discovering a new passion, seeing a beautiful sunset, or reading a book that transports us to another world. An avid runner and Georgia native, Tricia now lives with her family and four-legged friends in Colorado. Her newest romances are penned under Maria Jane. You can find all her titles from contemporary romance and fantasy to dystopian fiction at www.triciacopeland.com.

Let’s Be Social:

https://linktr.ee/triciacopeland

https://www.facebook.com/TriciaCopelandAuthor/

https://www.instagram.com/authortriciacopeland/

https://twitter.com/tcbrzostowicz

https://www.tiktok.com/@triciacopelandauthor

https://www.youtube.com/@triciacopelandauthor

https://www.pinterest.com/triciacopelanda/

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00YHN5Q4G

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14055439.Tricia_Copeland

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tricia-copeland

#WriterWednesday Interview with Tong Ge

I’d like to welcome Tong Ge to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Favorite thing that you always make time for: Reading and writing.

The thing you’ll always do just about anything to avoid: Starting a legal battle.

Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: my computer, my glasses, and a cup of water.

Things that distract you from writing: social media posts.

The thing you like most about being a writer: In the fiction world you created, you are the god. you decide who does what, even who will die and who will live.

The thing you like least about being a writer: doing my taxes. Being a writer just makes it more complicated.

The thing that you will most remember about your writing life:

In 2006, I signed up for my first creative writing course. I remember feeling so happy on my way to the classroom at Mount Royal University—something I hadn’t felt in a long time. Even though writing has been my lifelong dream, I always felt I had to make a living first and had no time to indulge in creative writing. It was the best gift I ever gave myself. On top of that, I had endured so much pain in my life, with the most recent being my boyfriend’s suicide in 2005.

Something in your writing life that you wish you could do over:

We all make mistakes. Some are more painful than others. Last April, I was working with the editor from my publisher. We were editing my book chapter by chapter, with the last section due from my end by the Easter long weekend. As I’m always self-conscious about my English, I decided to ask ChatGPT to check the grammar for the final quarter of the book, and I ended up adopting its suggestions. I worked until 4:30 on Good Friday morning and sent the final draft to my editor. By the late afternoon, she called me and asked what I had done. She said I somehow had lost my own voice. Even worse, after making those changes, I had saved only the revised clean copy because there wasn’t any time for back-and-forth revisions anyway. As a result, my editor and I had to work together over the phone for hours on Good Friday, line by line, to restore my original version. Although we eventually got it done, the stress of the situation caused me to reinjure myself. I had suffered repetitive strain injuries in both arms due to excessive computer work back in 2001 and had never fully recovered. This episode put me right back into the depths of that pain, leading to a year-long disability leave. If I could do it over, I would’ve never asked ChatGPT to check my grammar.

Something you’re really good at: I’m really good at my job which is financial planning. I’m also very good at investing.

Something you never learned how to do: Fixing my car or building a deck.

Things you always put in your books: Real lifetime events.

Things you never put in your books: My personal sex life.

Favorite things to do: Reading, writing, attending live theatre, traveling, watching good movies, connecting with friends, swimming and learning new things.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Jumping out of an airplane or bungee jumping.

The funniest thing to happen to you:

The funniest thing happened to me earlier this year when I was scheduled to give a presentation at a public hearing in my city. Before leaving the house, I was doing my makeup, but then I got a phone call. After the call, I realized I was running late, so I quickly jumped into the car my friend was driving. As we neared City Hall, for some reason I checked my makeup in the car mirror—and I was horrified! I had only done makeup on half my face. The only way to fix it was to find a store, buy some cosmetics, and quickly finish my makeup before my name was called.

I pulled out my phone and found a nearby Shoppers Drug Mart. We detoured to the store, but there was no parking in front. Normally, I would have asked my friend to idle the car and wait, but there was a police car parked right there, along with a few cops. My friend had to drop me off and circle the block. I rushed inside, explained my situation to a clerk, and she asked which brand I preferred. I said, “The cheapest one!” She led me to a shelf with budget products, and I quickly bought foundation, lipstick, eyeshadow, an eyeshadow brush, and eyeliner—no blush or brush, since I could use my finger to apply lipstick to my cheeks.

When we finally made it to the main hall of City Hall, I heard my name being called just then. Luckily, they were calling four or five names at once, so I knew I had a bit of time. I told the gate keeper guarding the meeting room that I just needed to dash to the washroom. In the washroom, I hurriedly applied makeup to the other half of my face, but to my horror, the lipstick broke at the base.

In the end, I managed to make myself presentable and delivered my presentation in front of the city officials and the public, both in person and online—God knows how many people were watching! Thankfully, no one commented on my makeup. What my friends remembered were my words.

The most embarrassing thing to happen to you:

When I was a graduate student, we had a course where each student had to give a presentation to the entire class. At that point, I had been in Canada for only two years, but I was confident that my English was good enough for academic studies. When it was my turn, I stepped onto the stage and began speaking. Then I noticed the professor burying his head in his hands, trying to hide his uncontrollable laughter. To my horror, I realized I had been saying "sexual" instead of "structural" every time I used the word. Oddly enough, the other students didn’t seem to notice the funniest part of that class!

The nicest thing a reader said to you: My debut novel, “The House Filler,” was the best book she had ever read.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: A review on Goodreads mentioned that if she had known my next two books weren’t out yet, she wouldn’t have read the first one. I wouldn’t call that the craziest thing, though.

The best job you ever had: I once worked as a mortgage insurance underwriter for CMHC, a Crown corporation of the Canadian Federal Government. I loved the job because of the excellent learning environment. The company paid for our travel to different cities for courses and also covered the cost of our French lessons.

The worst job you ever had: Oddly enough, it is the same job. I was injured on the job, resulting in a permanent disability that forced me to leave. I’ve never fully gotten over it. I still often dream of returning and have mourned the loss for the past 23 years.

About Tong:

Born and raised in China, Tong Ge came to Canada in the late 80s as an international student. Since 2012, she has been publishing poems, prose, and short stories in both English and Chinese across North America, England, and Taiwan. With four literary prizes already received, she is also a finalist for four others. Her debut novel, The House Filler was published in Canada in 2023 and is one of five worldwide finalists for the 2023 Eyelands Book Awards in the Historical Fiction + Memoir category. It is also the winner of the 2024 Independent Press Award for New Fiction and a finalist for the 2024 Canadian Book Club Awards.

Let’s Be Social:

Website (Coming Soon): Tong-Ge.com | Author

X: @Tong_Ge1

Instagram: @writertongge

Social Media Tips for Authors

Social media, especially when you’re trying to market a book, can be overwhelming. Here are a few tips that can help.

1. Know the platform’s style. Are hashtags popular (or even used)? They are popular on X, Instagram and TikTok, but not as much on Facebook.

2. Can you include a clickable link in the post? You can include one on Instagram, but it’s not clickable. On Facebook and X, you always want to include a link to make it easy for the reader to find you or your book.

3. Many platforms will truncate your text. (It will show a few lines and then offer a more link to see the rest.) Put the most important parts of your post first. It’s a three-second world out there. People are skimming, and they often don’t click for more unless they are really interested.

4. Always include a graphic with your posts. Movement in videos or interesting graphics draw readers to your post.

5. Avoid long paragraphs of text. Again, people are skimming on their devices, and they don’t spend a lot of time reading volumes of text.

6. Always tag locations and people that you mention. This helps your content reach those who search for the tags you use.

7. Reactions and likes are good. Comments and shares help you more with the platform’s algorithms. Pose questions. More responses will help your post be visible to a larger audience.

What ideas would you add to my list?

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Alethea Lyons

Happy Halloween! I’d like to welcome author Alethea Lyons to the blog for a #ThisorThatThursday interview.

Favorite thing that you always make time for: Aside from family, writing and reading. It takes a lot of time, so my social life goes out the window, but I’m okay with that.

The thing you’ll always do just about anything to avoid: Big parties where people will be doing anything competitive. Sorry to my friends who all seem to love boardgames, but I absolutely hate it and will self-sabotage.

Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: Since I started having to grab whatever time I could around my toddler, this list has basically dropped to ‘something to write with’ even if that’s just my phone and a five-minute break.

Things that distract you from writing: The two-year-old is pretty distracting! Seriously though, I find it hard to multitask, so if I keep getting e-mails or other projects are intruding, that’s difficult. Grating noises outside are difficult for my migraines, so if I am home alone and can have music, I do, just so outside noises are less noticeable.

The thing you like most about being a writer: Spinning a story out of something tiny. A perfectly crafted sentence.

The thing you like least about being a writer: Marketing and querying.

Things you will run to the store for in the middle of the night: Sometimes I wish I could run to the store for ice cream. Mostly, my emergency late night shops have been for milk when I’ve either just gotten home from a holiday or I’ve run out late. I need a cup of tea in the morning.

Things you never put on your shopping list: Tuna. It makes me really sick, so I won’t have it in the house. I will only buy coffee very reluctantly. I hate the smell of that too, but I have to get it for my mother-in-law.

The coolest thing you’ve bought online: Technically my husband’s purchase first and I then got him the same present. We each have a pair of battle lightsabers. It makes for quite the show in the back garden. He has the advantage being trained in staff fighting (and they link to make a lightsaber staff), whereas I’m a fencer and have to remember a lightsaber doesn’t have a guard.

The thing that you will most remember about your writing life: The feeling of coming down from a phone call to tell my husband that books 1.5 and 2 of my series had been picked up. I sat on the couch and cried.

Something in your writing life that you wish you could do over: Notifying people of the offer I had. I’d word it differently and I’d ask for more than two weeks.

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: Astronaut when I was little, then astrophysicist until I was about sixteen.

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: Write! It’s not enough to earn a living, but I never thought I’d have a book anyone would read, let alone published books and stories.

The best job you ever had: I count writing, even though it doesn’t make me any money. Job that I actually made a living at, though? Probably a role that was basically ‘problem solver’ and making things more efficient.

The worst job you ever had: Working on the line at a scampi factory. So disgusting my mom would plastic-wrap the car before picking me up, and I had to hop over the wall of the parking lot behind our house so I could go in the back gate and straight into the walk in shower rather than go through the house.

Favorite things to do: Play with my kid, write, read, travel with my husband, walk in the countryside, play my violin, sing. I’m pretty easy to please.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Playing an instrument in front of someone, especially if I know they’re good at playing it. Working in a fish factory again.

The one thing you cook/bake that is better than a restaurant dish: Not sure it compares to a restaurant dish, but my proudest baking achievement is that I can make candy cane cookies that taste as good as Grandma’s and I have a better method for making them.

The one thing you cooked/baked that turned out to be an epic disaster: One of the first years I made Thanksgiving dinner, I forgot to put the eggs in the pumpkin pies. They tasted great… for pumpkin goop.

About Alethea:

Alethea (she/ze) writes various forms of SFF, with a particular love for science-fantasy, dark fantasy, dystopias, and folklore. Many of her works take place at the intersection between technology and magic. Ze enjoys writing stories with subtle political and philosophical messages, but primarily wants zir stories to be great tales with characters readers will love. She also has soft spots for found family, hopeless romances, and non-human characters. Zir short stories can be found in a variety of publications and links for these are on her website.

Alethea lives in Manchester, UK with her husband, little Sprite, a cacophony of stringed instruments, and more tea than she can drink in a lifetime.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://alethealyons.wixsite.com

Social media: https://linktr.ee/alethearlyons

#WriterWednesday Interview with Chris Denmead

I’d like to welcome author Chris Denmead to the blog. He’s the perfect author for Halloween week.

Things you never want to run out of: Food

Things you wish you’d never bought: comics

A few of your favorite things: comics my son and my cat

Things you need to throw out: clothes

Things you need for your writing sessions: a computer

Things that hamper your writing: my adhd and depression

Hardest thing about being a writer: distractions

Easiest thing about being a writer: nothing is easy

Words that describe you: active and depressed

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: depressed

Favorite foods: lasagna and pizza

Things that make you want to gag: vomit

Favorite music or song: Johnny b goode by Chuck Berry

Music that drives you crazy: Country or gospel

Favorite beverage: Coffee or diet ginger ale or beer

Something that gives you a sour face: politics

Something you’re really good at: organizing stuff

Something you’re really bad at: staying organized

Last best thing you ate: cookies

Last thing you regret eating: bad pizza

The last thing you ordered online: a book

The last thing you regret buying: bad food

Things you’d walk a mile for: my gf and my son

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: stress and co workers

Things to say to an author: keep writing

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: by a shark please

Favorite places you’ve been: Hawaii

Places you never want to go to again: Virginia

Favorite books (or genre): horror or documentaries

Books you wouldn’t buy: religious

People you’d like to invite to dinner: Abe Lincoln and Stan Lee and Wes Craven

People you’d cancel dinner on: my father

Favorite things to do: read comic books

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: visit some relatives

Best thing you’ve ever done: raise my son make radio of Horror last for 17 years

Biggest mistake: not connecting with my dad before he died

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: travel to Hawaii

Something you chickened out from doing: hang gliding

The coolest person you’ve ever met: Director Wes Craven

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: too many too name and too cruel to answer

The nicest thing a reader said to you: they loved my book a lot

The craziest thing a reader said to you: the book was shipped badly by amazon ... I don't care and that's not my problem why tell me

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

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

Let’s Be Social:

www.wcuw.org

www.radioofhorror.wordpress.com

Warm up your Cold Calling

Many times, when authors schedule events, they have to reach out and do some cold calling, and it can be stressful to pitch something to someone you don’t know. Here are some ideas to help make your call not just another random request.

The best thing I ever did to build my contact list was to volunteer to schedule the programming for one of my writers’ groups. This gave me the opportunity to reach out to all kinds of venues and speakers and to build relationships with local book sellers, libraries, and other professionals. (I was scheduling writing, marketing, and law-enforcement-related presentations for my Sisters in Crime chapter. Among hundreds of local contacts, I now have two bailbondsmen in my contact list who did a fabulous presentation on what it’s like to seek bond.)

Here are some ideas to help you when you reach out to plan an event:

• Contacts and relationships are important. It is much easier to call or email someone you have a relationship with than it is a complete stranger.

• When you meet new people, make sure to add them to your contacts immediately. Make sure to include a note of where you met them.

• Visit your local bookstores and libraries regularly (not just when you want to do a book signing). Be part of the community. Make sure you introduce yourself.

• When you participate in a book festival, make sure to introduce yourself to the event coordinators and planners.

• Be willing to volunteer.

• Join a writers’ group and volunteer. These groups help authors build their networks.

• If you have a skill to share, volunteer to teach a class. Even if you can’t sell books there, you can still promote your newsletter and offer bookmarks.

• Contact your local library or bookseller and proposal a panel for a program that they could offer. Many groups are looking for interesting speakers.

• Do your homework. Learn about the group, organization, or business before you reach out to them. Look at their event calendars. Make sure that what you’re offering matches.

#ThisorThatThursay Interview with Author Donna M. Cramer

Today, I would like to welcome author, Donna M. Cramer, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you need for your writing sessions: I need coffee, time and a quiet environment.

Things that hamper your writing: Having too many appointments, noise, and self-doubt

Hardest thing about being a writer: It is a solitary activity without a lot of input from others unless you really reach out e.g. writer’s groups, conferences, etc.

The easiest thing about being a writer: having the privilege to express my thoughts and hopefully to help others. When the words flow through my fingertips, there is no better feeling.

Favorite foods: Anything Mexican or Italian

Things that make you want to gag: Not too much. I like food and like to try new foods. Not a fan of liver, though!

Favorite music or song: I’m a big Barry Manilow fan. I tend to really love his lesser-known work such as “All The Time” and “Please Don’t Be Scared.”

Music that drives you crazy: Not a fan of rap especially some of the misogynistic stuff.

Last best thing you ate: Delicious tacos from my favorite restaurant: Sol Toro.

Last thing you regret eating: A cream filled donut – way too sweet.

The last thing you ordered online: 12 small stuffed lions to go with my book series about Lester Lion.

The last thing you regret buying: A sweater ordered online. It looked cute, but when will I learn I need to try clothes on first!

Things you’d walk a mile for: A new book, almost any book, but especially one from my favorite authors such as Jodi Picoult, Lisa Jewell and Liane Moriarty.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Politics especially disrespect directed toward others. We are all human.

Things you always put in your books: Names of people I know.

Things you never put in your books: Actual events that occurred

Things to say to an author: Tell me about your book. I understand the point you were trying to make.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Who helped you write it? Did you write it yourself?

Favorite things to do: Read, followed by writing at a very close second.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Go to the doctor, although I do go when I need to!

Best thing you’ve ever done: Pursue my writing, never give up and get published!

Biggest mistake: Doubting myself and listening to others. Writing was never a waste of time because here I am now with two children’s books published and one adult novel. There are more on the way!

The coolest person you’ve ever met: Barry Manilow

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Rod Stewart much shorter than I thought, much shorter than me.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: Your book made a difference in my life.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: Did you really kidnap a baby? My novel is about a kidnapped boy. It is fiction, not a confession.

About Donna:

Donna M. Cramer is a retired special education teacher who lives in Massachusetts. She worked with young special needs students (preschool – first grade) for over 20 years. She sustained a life-altering brain injury while working at school, which forced her to retire early from teaching. Paul Is Missing is her first adult novel to be published. Donna has loved writing since childhood. Following her brain injury and during a long recovery, she came to realize that hope is so essential even during traumatic situations. Her brand is hope. She is also writing a series of children’s books featuring the character of Lester Lion. She stays busy writing, doing yoga and walking on the beach. She lives with her husband and two Maine Coon cats. Never give up, and always believe in hope!

Let’s Be Social:

Website: http://authordonnamcramer.com

Instagram: @donca4

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donna.cramer.716

Watch out for Bad Actors and Scams

There are a lot of bad actors and scams out on the internet (and social media). Here are some hints to help you protect yourself and your accounts.

You don’t have to friend everyone. If the account looks suspicious, you can ignore the request or block the person.

Watch out for the lovelorn widowers, sad stories looking for money, and handsome men looking for friends. These are often bots or other bad actors. They friend you and your friends to start up friendly conversations that usually end up with some kind of request for money.

Watch out for spoofed accounts, friend requests from someone who is already your friend.

There are some scams where you are tagged to a group post that looks like it’s from the social media company. The message is usually something about being locked out of your account for a violating some kind of standard. They provide a link for you to rectify the problem. It’s really a link to gather your private information. The social media platforms do not notify you in a group post. Untag yourself and block it.

You can report offensive, harassing, or dangerous accounts to the social media company. You can also untag yourself from messages or posts. Use the block or ban feature to prevent that account from contacting you again.

You can also set security parameters on your account and posts that will limit who can see your items or contact you.

Here are some hints that may help you spot a suspicious account:

• It’s a request from someone who is already your friend.

• There are very few posts on the person’s site, and most of them are from another user (not the account owner).

• There is very little background or biographical information and often only a few pictures on the account.

• Many times, there are no recent postings.

• If you receive a random direct message, it’s often a “ping” with a “hello” or something else to see if you will respond.

• Posts or direct messages are full of spelling and grammatical errors. (Though this is improving with AI.)

• There are lots of pictures of military personnel, flags, puppies, kittens, and flowers on the “person’s” site.

• The account may flood your page with likes and comments that don’t quite fit the topic.

• Some “digital marketers,” “book promoters,” “professional book reviewers,” and “social media promoters” are often accounts who are looking for authors to buy their “services.” The friendly chat will quickly turn into an expensive sales pitch.

Be vigilant and stay safe out there. The bad actors are always trying to work a new scam.