My Book Place

Tell us about yourself and your books.:
I'm Alex. I've written 6 books, one of which is currently published. Three of them are horror, three of them are the starts to YA fantasy series. I know, that's a weird combo, but I am also about to start a science fiction series. I guess I just write what I want to read in that moment.

Reading, sports, and good beer are my favorite past times, but I am also quite fond of fighting off imaginary bad guys with a broomstick, and annoying my beautiful wife.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My best writing takes place in a closet. Like a 3×3 walk-in closet with floor-to-ceiling shelves. That way I can sit on my exercise ball, or stand up when I write. I also say the words I write out loud. It makes it easy for me to quickly self-edit as I move along.

What authors have influenced you?
I know it's cliche, but Stephen King. I started reading him around the age of thirteen, and I started writing soon after that. Even when he writes a crap book, the emotions we feel toward his characters, the way we connect with them, it made me want to explore those feelings. All my novels feature monsters that are more character-based than monster-based, even though there is a monster, but that's very King inspired.

Thomas Ligotti and Cormac McCarthy have inspired my latter years of writing. I love the grit of McCarthy, and how Ligotti can tell a story so steeped in the real world, that the supernatural comes off as psychotic or incomprehensible, and that makes it so terrifying–because it is real, at least to the person experiencing it, and they're alone and isolated in that experience.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read a lot, and read what you love. Write a lot, and write what you love. Write because you love it.
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Tell us about yourself and your books.:
I've been writing since I was a little girl, and got my bachelor's degree in English. I have now published 29 novels and more than 70 fanfictions. I enjoy writing in all genres, and am currently writing a series of fairy tale retellings that people are really enjoying!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I love having animals around me–specifically, 2 birds and at least one cat, haha. I also enjoy making music playlists to set the mood whilst I am writing.

What authors have influenced you?
Definitely Tolkien, Dickens, the Brontes, Austen, C.S. Lewis, and whoever wrote Beowulf!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing, let people who love you and encourage you read your stories, and explore many avenues for publishing.
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Tell us about yourself and your books.:
Cat Clayton was a gypsy in a past life. In her current life, she’s a wife, a mother, a writer, and an artist. She writes best with gallons of coffee, Goldfish, Raisinettes, and dill pickle slices. Although, usually not all at once. Writing from somewhere in Texas, she loves to put her amateur sleuths into precarious situations, force them to stumble upon dead bodies, and help them solve the whodunits. Think Murder, She Wrote, but with a caffeinated, contemporary, & sometimes chick-lit vibe. (Oh, and at least one hot cop.)

How to Leash a Thief is the 1st installment of the Steely & Cuff Mystery series. How to Kennel a Killer is the 2nd and published November 9, 2018. Book 3 How to Fetch a Felon will release September 2019. The series is set to include (4) small town murder mysteries with a colorful cast of characters, large doses of humor, and stories dog lovers are sure to enjoy!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
When I'm not planted in a chair at a coffee shop, I've got "coffee shop chatter" (Noisli.com) playing in the background through a Bluetooth speaker.

What authors have influenced you?
Jana DeLeon, Diane Mott Davidson, JB Lynn, Ann Charles, Joanne Fluke, Charlaine Harris, and Janet Evanovich.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I'll pass on a bit of advice I got from Charlaine Harris one day: Never, ever give up.

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Tell us about yourself and your books.:
I've been writing since 2002 when I took on a dare from another teacher to write a novel during summer break. Now there are an eclectic mix of children's, young adult, and adult novels published traditionally and independently under my name on Amazon. I retired from teaching in 2006.
I've written a thriller, Edge of Escape, a break-your-heart adventure, The Guardian's Diary, and two paranormal dramas, Sheltered and A Soul's Kiss. My science fiction novels, Exodia and Out of Exodia, cross genres for a futuristic dystopian journey. My first sci-fi adventure is The Girl in the Time Machine. My second foray into sci-fi is the four book space adventure that begins with The Time Bender.
I've also written several children's books and a couple of non-fiction books.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write early in the morning and don't eat or drink anything for the first three or four hours. Once I start writing and get in the zone, time flies.

What authors have influenced you?
Dean Koontz was the first author to influence me and then probably every author I've read has added something to my style and technique.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I'd tell new authors to always have someone professionally edit their work. Also read as many books as you can in and out of your genre.
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Tell us about yourself and your books.:
I started late in my publishing life at the age of 65. Until 2011, I never thought of writing anything. I started the book as a form of psychology to try to understand what happened to me in my teenage years. From there it developed into the book, ‘Is it about that boy?’ with the subtitle of ‘The Shocking Trauma of Aversion Therapy.’
The book is a love story with dramatic twists. I fell in love with Stephen at the age of 16 and, although he died many years ago, I am still in love with him 50 years later. Why my love stayed so intense over that time is the underlying story behind the book.
I have lead a very physically active life that started with playing rugby at age thirteen, then mountaineering in my late teens, getting a labourers job in my twenties, rock and ice climbing, and then dry stone walling from the age of twentyfive. Dry stone walls are those built using no mortar, just stone and nothing else. During my walling career to present I have built nearly 10 miles of wall and lifting, by hand, over that time over 40,000 tons of stone.
Indeed my natural ability to build dry stone walls saved my life. During my deepest depressions when I thought about suicide, it was stone in one form or another that I used as a crutch to keep going.
When you read my book you will understand why I have rejected all forms of traditional religion and embraced a kind of Earth-based, Shamanic spiritual form, involving meditation, incense making and burning, and Tarot reading.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Due to my love of stone I have built myself a stoneman’s room in my house. This room has a stone floor, stone fireplace, stone shelves and a stone table. This room is my place of meditation. Here I can read and write with just the sounds of the burning wood in the open fire crackling and the gentle sounds of a snoring dog at my side.
I always have a notebook and pen at my bedside. During the night I’ll often dream so intensively about something which I try to write down as soon as I wake up. During my depression years I had a recurring nightmare about a spaceship which when written down and examined, by someone who understands dreams, revealed a hugely traumatic part of my past. I find it relatively easy to write non-fiction. I find it very difficult to write fiction. My life has had so many moments that would fit into a fiction book but as they have actually happened makes it very difficult for me to separate them.

What authors have influenced you?
I like books that make me think and examine my experiences.
My favourite writers are: Richard Bach with his books which are a mix of fiction and facts. ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ at one time became my bible.
Bruce Chatwin for ‘Songlines’ another writer who mixes fact and fiction. And the perfect book for someone with a faulty memory.
T Thorn Coyle with her books about Wiccan beliefs, ‘Evolutionary Witchcraft,’ ‘Kissing the Limitless,’ ‘Make Magic of Your Life.’
PD Ouspensky for ‘In Search of the Miraculous’ which is a bit dated but is full of wonderful ideas.
Phyllis Curott, ‘Book of Shadows,’ and ‘Witch Crafting: A spiritual guide to making magic.’
All the writers of the Ulverston Writers: Philip Caine, Jeannie French, Maggie Norton, Julia Patten, Peggy Savage, Gillian Ogilvie, and Geoffrey Elleray, Eve Brookes.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Always have a notebook AND pen neer you at all times. I emphasise the AND due to the oftentimes I forget a pen. By all means use your mobile phone for these notes but pen and paper means you can get the notes down quickly.
I have a notebook at my bedside so that in the event that I have had an intensive dream or nightmare I can write down my thoughts immediately on waking up.
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Tell us about yourself and your books.:
I was born and reared in Southern California, in the Los Angeles County beach community of Redondo Beach. In college, I studied journalism and afterward embarked on a journalism career during which I worked as a newspaper crime reporter, a national award-winning investigative journalist, and a freelance correspondent for LIFE Magazine and Newsweek, and finally as editor of a business newspaper. After twenty-some years of that, I grew tired of journalism and left it for a position as an analyst in combat medical operations for the U.S. Navy. I left that position in 2018.

Besides my journalism career, I also spent 27 years in three branches of the military reserves. I did search and rescue. medical response, and maritime law enforcement in U.S. Coast Guard Reserve for 13 years broken service, and counter-insurgency warfare in the Naval Reserve for three years in between my two tours in the Coast Guard. This was followed by 11 years in a component of the California National Guard, where I served first as a medical service corps officer, then as a military policeman. I just retired in the Fall of 2016 as an executive officer of a state MP unit with the rank of major.

I’ve also been a member of a federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team and a local county disaster response team, as well as a reserve sergeant and medical specialist with the local sheriff’s Search and Rescue Detail. All of this, of course, was part time.

Because of my background, I tend to write mystery thrillers. I have two series, the Peter Brandt mysteries featuring a war-scarred journalist, and the Linus Schag, NCIS, thrillers. I also have an award-winning collection of short stories called DUTY, with mystery and suspense stories dealing with national service, and a sci-fi novella called EDEN, in which a group of American GIs in war torn Iraq stumble onto an ancient secret about the beginnings of humankind. My latest novel, Polar Melt, is a sci-fi novel centered around the melting Arctic ice cap. That book is due out January 1.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
When I was still working for the Navy, writing time was scarce. So, I also carried my Kindle Fire tablet and a Bluetooth keyboard in my ruck everyplace I went. When I got a chance to write, I would bring them out and pound out a few hundred words. I also did a lot of writing on my iPhone during meetings. When everyone else was checking their emails and texts, I was writing a short story or something.

These days, my writing schedule is more conventional. I sit at a desk first thing in the morning and aim for 500 words. After that, I do freelance editing for publishers or other authors.

What authors have influenced you?
Oh, that is impossible to say because there were so many. In college, I was very influenced by the Lost Generation writers – Hemingway, Dos Passos, Remarque. But I also read a lot of science fiction by writers like Bradbury, Wells, Verne, etc. Of course, I read and still read a lot of thrillers and mysteries from the greats like Ian Fleming, Raymond Chandler and John D. MacDonald. Of contemporary writers, I would say David Morrell has had the most influence on my work. Like David, I do a great deal of research for my novels to give them an air of authenticity.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
One word: Rewrite. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Too many new writers complete one draft of a manuscript and think it's ready for publication. It's not. You have to be patient and put it aside for a while, then come back to it with fresh eyes. Do that two or three times, minimum. I always say the art is not in the writing, but in the rewriting.
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Tell us about yourself and your books.:
I am an Author, Life Coach, Clinical Hypnotherapist and life voyager. I strive to inspire conscious living and conscious dialogue. I live in the Northwest and enjoy kayaking and the ocean (okay, I'll admit it, I'm a beach bum). I have written 3 books of modern poetry, a recovery workbook ("Never Enough"), and an award-winning autobiography ("Once The Storm Is Over: From Grieving to Healing After the Suicide of My Daughter"). My next will be published in 2019 by Austin Macauley Publishers, "Messages From Metatron: A Course in Self-Transformation."

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I am an eclectic author; I never know which way my curiosity will point me. I tend to express my thoughts privately. After intense editing, I transfer what once was incoherent scribbles and ramblings to my spiritual self-help blog. I can't imagine being such a precise and organized writer that I could blog directly from my thoughts and be understood. Writing is an art, and like all art my writing is messy and chaotic at first glance. It undergoes a refining process that shapes the article or book into a finished, gleaming piece.

What authors have influenced you?
I enjoy autobiographies about people who have overcome the odds and left the world a better place. My mental health hero is Dr. Elyn R. Saks who wrote the recommendation that graces the cover of my autobiography. She is my "she-ro" for several reasons: She is an Associate Dean and Professor at the University of Southern California Gould Law School and an expert in mental health law. However, Dr. Saks lives with schizophrenia and has written about her experience with the illness in her award-winning best-selling autobiography, "The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness." Saks is also a cancer survivor. Despite insurmountable odds that would stop most people, Dr. Saks has triumphed over illness by moving forward in spite of it.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice is that good writing is brave writing. Don't be afraid to bear your soul by detailing your tragedy and human frailty. This is what people can relate to. And, your "oddness" or special gifts may be the thing that readers find most appealing about you and will sell books. Don't hide behind your writing. Let readers see who you really are, all of you.
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