#WriterWednesday with DonnaRae Menard

I’d like to welcome the fabulous and funny DonnaRae Menard to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Hardest thing about being a writer: Finding the just right place to market.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Let the story build itself and getting it all down.

Things you need for your writing sessions: coffee, chocolate, cats

Things that hamper your writing: The Three C’s – coffee, chocolate, cats.

Words that describe you: Energetic, Over the top, Willing to share.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Boring. Staid.

Something you’re really good at: Talking to people.

Something you’re really bad at: Remembering I should have boundaries.

Last best thing you ate: Sour pickle, pepperoni, and cheese snacks on Ritz.

Last thing you regret eating: The entire container of Chunky Monkey ice cream ten minutes before I went to bed.

Favorite music or song: The Last Kiss, version by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers.

Music that drives you crazy: Anything that is the same 3 lines over and over again.

The last thing you ordered online: Doll grocery cart.

The last thing you regret buying: 3 months’ worth of the GOLO diet.

Things you’d walk a mile for: The heck of it, good music, a chance to be with my friends.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Anything work related that is 45 minutes of 5 minutes’ worth of information.

Things you always put in your books: food, critters, compassion.

Things you never put in your books: Usually real sex. I like the innuendo, the hint that the reader can build in their mind.

Things to say to an author: You can do this. Tell me what you need, let’s see if I have an answer.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Your idea is trite, your prose repetitive, and your character a joke.

Favorite places you’ve been: Anywhere in the car.

Places you never want to go to again: Up in a four-seater airplane on a sightseeing flight.

Favorite books (or genre): Historical mystery fiction

Books you wouldn’t buy: True crime.

Favorite things to do: Eat, gab, write.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Sit through a self-awareness lecture.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Played spray paint cow bingo in the middle of the night

Something you chickened out from doing: Facing my dad when I knew I was totally wrong. I blamed it on my brother.

The funniest thing to happen to you: I booked a non-refundable flight for a three-day conference, and spent the time couch surfing at a Marriott.

The most embarrassing thing to happen to you: Having to stand up in front of a woman I didn’t like and apologize for my bad behavior.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: Lyndon Baines Johnson

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: John Travolta.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: When Katie described her bad hallucination, it made me cry.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: Have you ever actually been around pigs?

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: I’m a stitcher. I see something I like, go home and make a pattern. I’ve made several wedding gowns and somewhere in the process, I always tweak until I’m happy. Oh, and sometimes forget to ask the bride.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: I volunteered to video a wedding and reception. I got a little tipsy, there was a lot of inappropriate footage.

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: There are many, many real-life incidents in my books. I have a large family and can usually find someone to help.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: In the An It’s Never Too Late Series, Katelyn Took is not me.

My favorite book as a child: Beautiful Joe

A book I’ve read more than once: All of JRR Tolkien.

Your favorite movie as a child: The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

A TV show or movie that kept you awake at night as a kid (or as an adult): The Blob. I slept on the porch roof for months because it was cold out there and the Blob didn’t like the cold.

About DonnaRae:

DonnaRae Menard began writing in junior high school and has been scribbling since. DonnaRae is a hybrid author with both self-published books and working with Level Best Books Publishing, as well as with Of Metal and Magic Publishing. She is the author of Murder in the Meadow, 1970 cozy mystery series, In the Shadow of Pharoah, historical fiction series, The Waif and The Warlord, and the Detective Carmine Mansuer series. New on her list are Beneath the Fountain, Dropped from the Sky, Murder on the Small Farm, The Morality Issue, and Snuffling Up Bones, Book 1, in The Pig & I Series. She splits her time between Vermont and New Hampshire, has an affinity for odd jobs, rescued cats, and talking about her 450-pound lap pig. Check out her website donnaraemenardbooks.com. Find her on facebook and Blue Sky. Follow QR code to webpage.

Let’s Be Social:

BlueSky: drmenardbooks.blsky.social

Website: donnaraemenardbooks.com

Facebook: DonnaRae Menard

Reading - Why It's Important for Writers

I was always that kid who got excited when the teacher gave us free reading time. Reading has always been a way for me to relax and to escape into other worlds and a chance to solve a mystery.

Reading, especially your genre, is also important to writers. And here’s why:

• If you want to go the traditional publishing route, you need to know what is out there. It’s always good to have an idea where your book fits.

• If you are querying publishers, look at the publishers/imprints and see what genres and subgenres they are publishing.

• If you are querying agents, check out the author’s notes or the acknowledgments to see who represents them. If it matches your genre, add them to your list to research.

• Reading builds vocabulary and exposes you to literary techniques and styles.

• When I decided to write a cozy mystery, I spent almost a year reading every cozy I could get my hands on. I took note of themes, types of sleuths, locations, the voice (first or third person), the tense the story is written in, and the major/minor characters.

• Follow authors and publishers that catch your eye. Sign up for newsletters to see what’s new and releasing next.

• Follow book bloggers, podcasters, and book reviewers on social media and see what they are reviewing.

• Reading is research.

What would you add to my list?

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with CC Robinson

I’d like to welcome CC Robinson to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday.

Favorite thing to do when you have free time: Read! I love reading and read most genres, except horror. My favorites are dystopian and post-apocalyptic, but my kindle app often contains mysteries, thrillers, clean romance, epic fantasy, and young adult contemporary.

The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: I loathe ironing. I don’t mind washing or even folding the laundry, but for some reason ironing isn’t my jam. I’ll postpone doing it until I’ve piled up a dozen or more items needing ironing.

Hardest thing about being a writer: I think I’d say it has to be juggling all the tasks that I have to do as an author-preneur. I love writing and I don’t mind marketing, but piling on all the business management tasks and the website management makes the days long. I don’t task-switch very well, but I’m learning to batch these related items into blocks of time. I’m also learning that trying to write later in the day isn’t great for me, so that’s when I throw in a block of business management tasks.

Easiest thing about being a writer: The writing! I love writing and the words come easily to me. I create a general plot for the book ahead of time. But as I’m writing I listen to my characters. If the plot needs to change, I’ll bend for where they want to take the story.

About CC:

CC Robinson is the award-winning and Amazon bestselling author of the Divided series, a young adult dystopian series set in a racially-divided future America. She has over two decades’ experience in cross-cultural settings as a medical doctor working in post-civil war nations and as an Associate Pastor at a multi-ethnic congregation led by an African-American man in Cincinnati, the setting for Divided. When she’s not throwing on her superhero cape to save her characters from their dystopian antics, CC enjoys hiking, gardening, dancing, swimming, and driving her jeep through the woods with her husband and three Gen Z kids.

Let’s Be Social:

https://facebook.com/ccrobinsonauthor

https://instagram.com/ccrobinsonauthor

https://tiktok.com/ccrobinsonauthor

Mentoring - The Benefits are on Both Sides

I love being a mentor. It’s an honor to get to work with others and assist them with their careers and writing journeys. I enjoy listening to others as they explore their paths and look for opportunities.

Through the years, I’ve been a manager of staff and interns, teacher, coach, and mentor. It takes time and energy and some planning, but I get so much out of these sessions.

It’s always good to have a plan and goals for what each person gets out of the program. It’s also good to set ground rules up front for meeting times and other housekeeping items. I love to talk, but as a mentor, listening is key. I let my partner set the agenda topics, and I check in on goals and progress.

These sessions are great opportunities to get to know others and to talk about the creative things they are doing and to maybe assist with some roadblocks. At work, we often talk about how to navigate the policies and procedures, career paths, and developmental opportunities. When I meet with authors, we usually talk about publishing trends, goals for their work, expectations of readers, and book marketing and promotion.

I have met some amazing people through these mentoring programs over the years. It’s an opportunity to share, and the benefits happen on both sides.

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Breakfield & Burkey

I’d like to welcome Breakfield and Burkey back to the blog!

Things you never want to run out of: Breakfield and Burkey agree that Pace Picante sauce should always be available. It’s delicious on everything.

Things you wish you’d never bought: Burkey would prefer to forget she ever bought into the slick words of the sales guy who promised their book would be on film. I’m sure you can imagine the other great lie that came into her mind.

Hardest thing about being a writer: The most difficult is learning to create an innovative idea in a different genre and delivering an excellent final story.

Easiest thing about being a writer: For us, it is having a co-author to bounce ideas back and forth. We never sugar coat anything, and if all else fails, Rock-Paper-Scissors solves the issue.

Things you need for your writing sessions: Quiet, undisturbed time to focus on new story content seems to gain the most ground for both Breakfield and Burkey.

Things that hamper your writing: Interruptions in the form of phone calls, email, and

A few of your favorite things: Cast iron cookware used to make personal pan pizzas on the grill, each one a creative delight.

Things you need to throw out: Breakfield agreed to discard the T-shirts he’d been holding onto from before 1999.

Words that describe you: hardworking, creative, helpful, tenacious, open-minded, altruistic, and philanthropic

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

Favorite foods: Grilled chicken, homemade pan pizza on a grill, Paella, scallops, grilled Brussels sprouts, and escargot

Things that make you want to gag: Lima beans

Something you’re really good at: Breakfield and Burkey are fantastic at framing thrillers with a technology threat element.

Something you’re really bad at: Breakfield and Burkey take it to heart when we disappoint readers.

Favorite music or song: Burkey’s favorite song is ‘Til You Can’t Breakfield’s song is Comfortably Numb

Music that drives you crazy: Breakfield and Burkey are not fans of Hip Hop music.

Favorite smell: Barbeque, anything is wonderful

Something that makes you hold your nose: Skunks win the prize for the stinkiest award.

Last best thing you ate: Escargot (especially on a cruise ship)

Last thing you regret eating: Fruit cake opened on Christmas but ignored until Valentine's Day

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Zipline

Something you chickened out from doing: Skydiving

The nicest thing a reader said to you: I didn’t want to feel sorry for Mathias, but your writing compelled me.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: That the technology in our thrillers isn’t real.

About Breakfield and Burkey:

Breakfield, as the CTO of Enigma Series, LLC leverages his decades of technology expertise, including security, networking, voice, and anything digital, to bring innovative technothriller elements into storytelling. He has deep knowledge of World War II history, has traveled extensively, and seeks cultural exchanges to learn what makes different people tick. Charles enjoys wine tasting, wine-making, Harley riding, cooking new recipes, and woodworking.

Burkey, as the COO of Enigma Series, LLC uses her extensive professional knowledge of optimizing technology and business investments to drive stellar customer experiences into the ongoing stories of Enigma Series. The characteristics of people she has met throughout her career are woven into their stories. Rox enjoys her family, friends, puppies, reading, reviewing books, and traveling whenever possible. Meeting readers at various events is one of her favorite pastimes.

Together, they have created award-winning stories that resonate with men and women, with a fresh perspective on technology possibilities within a fictional framework. They have two technothriller series, The Enigma Series and Enigma Heirs. They ventured into writing cozy mysteries with the Underground Authors in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles. Their newest short story collection complements their novella and individual short stories. For more information, we invite you to visit https://www.EnigmaSeries.com.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: https://enigmabookseries.com/

Twitter - X - https://x.com/1rburkey and https://x.com/EnigmaSeries

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/roxanne.burkey.50 and https://www.facebook.com/TheEnigmaSeries

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/roxanneburkey/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesbreakfield/ 

#WriterWednesday with Joel Turner

I’d like to welcome author Joel Turner to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Hardest thing about being a writer: Blank page

Easiest thing about being a writer: Editing

Things you need for your writing sessions: Quiet (negotiable), coffee (non-negotiable)

Things that hamper your writing: Laziness

Words that describe you: Affable, easy-going, obsessive about some things

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Know-it-all

Something you’re really good at: Saying what basketball announcers say before they say it

Something you’re really bad at: Handwriting

Last best thing you ate: Tomato pie

Last thing you regret eating: A hamburger

Favorite music or song: R&B, “Mind over Matter” by Nolan Strong and the Diablos

Music that drives you crazy: “Sweet Caroline,” Neil Diamond in general

The last thing you ordered online: WILDWOOD EXIT bookmarks

The last thing you regret buying: Roomba

Things you’d walk a mile for: Ultimate Italian Hoagie from Carlino’s; a mint-condition 45 of “Village of Love” by Nathaniel Mayer and the Fabulous Twilights on the Fortune Label.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: “Watching Scotty Grow” by Bobby Goldsboro

Things to say to an author: I bought your book

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I’ve always wanted to write a book but don’t have the time.

Favorite places you’ve been: Ravello, Islay, Barbados

Places you never want to go to again: Disneyworld

Favorite books (or genre): Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien, How late it was, how late by James Kelman, High Rise by J. G. Ballard, God’s Pocket by Pete Dexter

Books you wouldn’t buy: Romance, Romantasy

Favorite things to do: Play golf, listen to R&B, dinner out with my wife

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Square dancing

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Getting an MBA

Something you chickened out from doing: Getting an MFA

The funniest thing to happen to you: Being exorcised by a Catholic priest in preparation for becoming a god-parent.

The most embarrassing thing to happen to you: Calling my god-daughter by her sister’s name

The coolest person you’ve ever met: Dave Davies of The Kinks

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: World B. Free – he’d put on a few pounds since his playing days.

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: Explaining to a roomful of bankers in Milan how bad their credit metrics were.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: Spending the summer of my sophomore year in college in Berkeley, CA, with promise of a job that fell apart when I got there. I ended up working in the Del Monte cannery under an assumed name.

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: A friend crashing a car and walking away from it, because the title had not been transferred to him.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: Having a girlfriend from Quebec

The first 8-track, record, cassette, or CD you ever bought: The Yardbirds Greatest Hits

A type of music that’s not your cup of tea: Modern Country

My favorite book as a child: A Pass and a Prayer by Claire Bee

A book I’ve read more than once: Exterminator! By William S. Burroughs

Your favorite movie as a child: The Beast from the 20000 Fathoms

A TV show or movie that kept you awake at night as a kid (or as an adult): Vertigo

About Joel:

Joel E. Turner has combined his writing work with a career as a consultant in business analytics to banks in the US and Europe. His fiction has appeared in many US and UK journals. He also writes about Soul Music, film, and books at joeleturnerauthor.com. His new novel, WILDWOOD EXIT, a Jersey Shore noir tale, draws on his extensive work experience at some of the finer dining establishments at the Jersey Shore. He knows how to operate a Frialator.

Mr. Turner splits his time between Philadelphia and White Cloud, Michigan.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: http://joeleturnerauthor.com

Twitter: @JoelETurner1

Bluesky: @joeleturner.bsky.social

Instagram: @bzturner

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joeleturner2

ROI - Sometimes It's More Than Book Sales

My writing career started with a series of short stories, and many of the anthology writers and I did hundreds of events. It was a great way to get out and meet readers and to talk about books. For the first couple of years, we had something scheduled almost every weekend. As I started writing novels (and had contracts for multiple series), I cut down on a lot of the travel and appearances. It’s good to be choosy about projects and events you take on, but I encourage you to look at the total ROI (Return on Investment) when you make your decisions. Sometimes, you gain a lot more than just book sales.

Use every opportunity you have to invite people to join your newsletter list and follow you on social media.

Many of the writing projects and events have offered me the opportunity to network with other writers, publishers, podcasters, bloggers, and agents. These encounters led to other opportunities and projects. One led to acquiring an agent.

I often teach workshops and classes. These are work, but they’re a chance for me to share information on a topic that I love and to meet new readers and writers. Schools and libraries have a special place in my heart, and I will always try to accept their invitations. These events may not be an opportunity to sell books, but you can gather names for your email list and give out bookmarks. Many times, I’ve seen my sales numbers jump after a class or workshop.

Many of the writing conferences have offered me a chance to network and meet other authors. And that has led to lots of blogging, podcast, and anthology projects. (We plotted the themes of several anthologies in the restaurant at the Malice Domestic conference.)

I have also been very fortunate to receive book club and other speaking invitations from referrals from folks who attended a class, seminar, or book signing.

Events and promotions can be time consuming (and often costly). Look at your marketing plan and how you want to promote your work. But don’t forget there many offer other kinds of rewards and benefits.

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Michael Rigg

I’d like to welcome my friend, Michael Rigg, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Hardest thing about being a writer: Marketing, e.g., social media, website upkeep, talking to readers about my books and short stories, business aspects of book sales.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Attending writing conferences and classes.

Things you need for your writing sessions: Time and a relatively quiet space.

Things that hamper your writing: The “other duties as assigned” aspects of writing, e.g., marketing.

Something you’re really good at: Procrastination.

Something you’re really bad at: Organization.

Last best thing you ate: Broiled crabcakes at a restaurant in Smithfield, Virginia.

Last thing you regret eating: An Armour (brand) Potted Meat sandwich.

The last thing you ordered online: Postage Stamps.

The last thing you regret buying: Armour (brand) Potted Meat.

Things you always put in your books: For my stories set in New Orleans, I like to mention the resurrection fern. It’s a plant (but not a parasite) that grows on the live oak trees that are prevalent in New Orleans. Depending on the amount of rain, the resurrection fern will either appear brown and shriveled or lush, thick, and green. In dry weather, the plant shrivels up and appears to be dead. But with rain, the plant seems to come back to life—a resurrection.

Things you never put in your books: Hopelessness. There can be tension, fear, and even tragedy. But in the end, justice and fairness must prevail.

Things to say to an author: I like to comment on a particular aspect of a short story or novel to show that I read and appreciated the author’s work.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I couldn’t read your novel past the first three pages.

The funniest thing to happen to you: During the time I was Counsel for the Navy Exchange Service Command, I attended a legal conference in Naples, Italy. Over the weekend before the conference, I volunteered to work at our Navy Exchange retail store during a customer appreciation event. My assignment was to help ring up purchases of high-end sunglasses and jewelry. One of the customers asked me to try on a pair of designer sunglasses because my head was the same shape as his father’s head. Translation? I got to model the sunglasses because I was old and fat, like his dad. I made the sale, though.

The most embarrassing thing to happen to you: I don’t want to go into too much detail, but there was one incident involving a very hot shower in a London hotel where the steam (allegedly) set off a fire alarm, resulting in a rather large desk clerk with a thick Russian accent banging on the door. There may or may not have been threats of arrest, fine, and imprisonment involved.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: David Morrell, the author of First Blood (Rambo).

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Bette Midler. I saw her outside a Broadway theater, where she had just performed in Hello Dolly! She was tiny. She wasn’t just short and petite, she was “Tinker Bell tiny.”

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: I built a wooden toolbox in Junior High School shop class.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: The wooden toolbox I built in Junior High School shop class.

Your favorite book as a child: Dr. Doolittle (the series). Dr. Doolittle had an assistant, Tommy Stubbins, who was about my age at the time.

A book I’ve read more than once: A Fly Went By – by Mike McClintock. Beyond that, most of my re-reads are history books or biographies because I want to check out a particular historical fact or event.

Your favorite movie as a child: It’s a tossup between The Wizard of Oz and Goldfinger. The Wizard of Oz had flying monkeys, Munchkins, and they melted a witch! In Goldfinger, the evil-doers killed a guy in his car then put it in a metal crusher, painted a woman gold, and employed a huge Japanese gangster who killed people by throwing his hat at them.

A TV show or movie that kept you awake at night as a kid (or as an adult): When I was a kid (maybe five or six years old), Invaders from Mars (the black-and-white version) scared me “to death.” I saw it as an adult and realized how cheesy it was.

About Michael:

Michael Rigg, an attorney for more than four decades, writes mysteries and thrillers set in two very different locations: Virginia Beach (where he lives) and New Orleans (which he visits as often as possible “for research,” including participation in three Mardi Gras Krewes). He is a retired Navy Judge Advocate and a retired civilian government attorney, formerly working for the Department of the Navy Office of the General Counsel. He is a member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and both the Sisters in Crime national organization and its Southeastern Virginia Chapter—Mystery by the Sea.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: www.michaelrigg.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/michael.rigg.author

Twitter/X: Michael Rigg@MDR102030

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michael-rigg-4567b591