Author spotlight with Dianna Hunter

Dear Dianna,
Thanks for agreeing to the interview.

What has been your biggest influence on becoming a writer?
Writing has allowed me to release all those emotions and stories beating against the walls of my brain.

What makes a book great in your eyes?The ability to keep a reader’s attention and put him inside the character’s skin.

What is the biggest piece of your advice you can give a beginning writer?
Write what you feel—no matter what it is. If you feel pain, put it on paper—if you are feeling erotic, tell us about it, etc.

What are you working on now?
The new title is Daemon Hunter. Leanna is a world-walker from the world of Haiti. She is tracking a rogue wizard through the Chain of worlds to rescue her brothers. Her biggest challenge is the chance encounter with other races who may mistake her for the fabled demons of their own mythology for Lea is a tall, slender young woman—with scaled bronze-gold skin, red/gold eyes and a magnificent set of horns curling through her locks of forest-green hair.

Are love scenes easy/difficult to write?
It is both for no matter how much fantasy is involved, there is always just that touch of someone remembered and loved.

Do you write in one genre or several different ones? And why?
Fantasy is the world I feel most at home.

If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?
On the beach.

How do you deal with the dreaded writer’s block?
I take a couple of days off and do something else—I take pictures or just read a book by one of my favorite authors to take my mind away from my own world.

Do you have another career besides writing? What is it?
I am a photographer.

What’s your biggest reward in being a writer?
I get to take some of the chaos out of my mind and organize it on paper.

To date, which is your favorite story? Which one did you have the most fun writing?
I think like The Druid’s Revenge the best. It was originally titled Hear the Wind Cry because it was how I heard the story told. I like Mariah’s way of gathering her power to her and coping with her inner pain.

How do you go about developing your characters and setting?
A character comes to me of her own and the world forms around us. Anything from a newspaper story to a real event can instigate this. In The Druid’s Captive, the murder at the beginning of the story was real—perhaps the perpetrator was not a big man in black but—well, they never did catch him.

If you had the opportunity to say one thing to your readers, what would that be?
Just keep on dreaming – and writing it down to share!

Author spotlight with Thadd Evans

Dear Thadd,
Thanks for agreeing to the interview. Tell us, what has been your biggest influence on becoming a writer?
In elementary school, junior high, senior high and college, teachers praised me for my short stories and essays. In high school, my English teacher said, "You're the only one in my class who has anything to say. Write more!"

How did you feel when you got your first publishing contract?
I was shocked, in a good way.

What makes a book great in your eyes?
It makes you laugh, think, imagine and hope. It opens your mind to many possibilities.

What is the biggest piece of your advice you can give a beginning writer?
Read Elements of Style by Strunk and White and The First Five Pages, Staying out of the Rejection Pile, by Noah Lukeman. Also, write as much as you can and join a writer's group. That is an over simplification, but it's a start.

What influences your writing? And why?
Images in my head, movies, books, newspaper articles. For about thwenty-five years, I read about quantum mechanics, a field that is so weird, so fantastic that it boggles the mind. Why? Because these provoke my imagination.

What are you working on now?
Beyond Portal 2212, a science fiction novel about a group of cloned humans who are trying to survive in an alternate universe.

Who is your favorite all-time author?
It's a tossup between James Joyce, author of Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and Josesph Heller, author of Catch-22.

How do you deal with the dreaded writer’s block?
I get tired, but I never have to deal writer's block.

What’s your biggest reward in being a writer?
Today, it's the fact that my stories are the best way to articulate my ideas about the future. Although movies like Terminator and Blade Runner and other movies deal with that topic, there are many possible futures.

Author spotlight with Viola Grace

Dear Viola,

Thanks for agreeing to this interview. Let’s start by asking how you categorize yourself: pantser or plotter?
Pantser all the way. Every time I plot, it goes off in a different direction.

What makes a book great in your eyes?
Emotional development of a character. If the characters don’t evolve, then what is the point? I want the females and the males to come to realizations and discover a part of their personality that they had forgotten about.

What is the biggest piece of your advice you can give a beginning writer?
Write, finish, submit. Write again.

If you don’t’ finish something, then you will never know if your writing can stand on its own. Choose your genre by writing a book you enjoy, not by what you think someone else may like. If you are lucky, your passion for your topic will come through and then your audience will come.

Are love scenes easy/difficult to write?
A love scene is easy. A sex scene is difficult. With a love scene, I am concentrating on the feelings of the couple. The sensations, the seduction of the senses. With sex scenes, you have to break it down to the physical, steps in a dance. If someone steps on the other’s toes, the music stops.

Do you write in one genre or several different ones? And why?
I write in both Urban romantic fantasy and in erotic romantic fantasy. I started in erotic writing because I knew I could do it well, but as I have evolved, the urge to tell the story has become all-consuming. It is easier to write an action/romance without having to work in a detailed sex scene.

How do you deal with the dreaded writer’s block?
I call my friends and bitch about it. I craft, craft, do housework, craft, chat online and when my brain feels it is time, I go back to writing.

What’s your biggest reward in being a writer?
Fan mail. I LOVE fan mail. I have suspected that someone is reading my work, but getting emails from readers makes my day. Better than a good review any day.

To date, which is your favorite story? Which one did you have the most fun writing?
Freak Factor is my current favourite story. The most fun one as well. Creating superheroes in space makes the Sector Guard my favourite set of books in general. They were all fun to write.

How do you go about developing your characters and setting?
For setting, I create a place where the characters can get together with a slight amount of privacy. The logic behind their seclusion has to make sense. As for characters, I pick a personality trait that I want the character to embody and I build the character around it.

If you had the opportunity to say one thing to your readers, what would that be?
Thank you so much for letting me do what I love for a living!

 http://www.violagrace.com/
viola@violagrace.com

Author spotlight with Jon Bradbury

Dear Jon,
First, thanks for agreeing to the interview.
Tell us, what has been your biggest influence on becoming a writer?
Not so much what as who. Five people, my high school English teacher, Mr. Sorgent, was the first person to make me realize I could be a writer. My college Journalism Professor, Francis Garland, and two guys I both knew and worked with on the college newspaper, Don McGee and Steve Elliot, plus a drama professor, Jerry O‘Donnell.

How did you feel when you got your first publishing contract?
It was very exciting, but anti-climactic as well. I didn’t even speak to the person on the phone. All contact was through email. I submitted the manuscript. I got an email back saying, We like it but we need you to make changes. I made the changes and sent it back in. Then I got an email back saying, Here’s your contract.

What makes a book great in your eyes?
A book needs primary characters someone can relate to and imagine knowing. Strong vivid writing to place the reader in the moment as the events in the story are happening. Strong character and plot development.

What is the biggest piece of your advice you can give a beginning writer?
Read as much as you can from as many different sources as possible—books, magazines, newspapers, online articles, blogs, to get exposure to as many different writing styles as possible.

Do you have any guilty pleasures?
Baywatch.

What influences your writing? And why?
A lot of pop culture, like music and music videos, gives me material for stories. Personal experience or that of others.

Name one thing readers don’t know about you.
I love cartoons—Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, ect.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on several stories right now—a sequel to Diamonds Are Forever, a story called One Good Reason, about two people in the Air Force who meet in Paris, and several other stories in various stages.

Who is your favorite all-time author?
Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

Are love scenes easy/difficult to write?
Love scenes are usually difficult to write, but fun. You would think love scenes would be easy to write, but there are a lot of details involved. Much like porn movies, you have to plan the situation, where they’re at, what they’re wearing, positions, what they do, ect. It’s fun but it can be difficult.

Do you write in one genre or several different ones? And why?
I write urban contemporary romance, but I am interested in branching out into swords-and-sorcery stories, and I have an idea for a vampire story. I don’t want to muscle in on anyone‘s action, I just think it would be fun to write other types of stories. Maybe one will see the light of day.

If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?
Anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere. Or maybe just Baja LOL.

How do you deal with the dreaded writer’s block?
I recognize that I’m trying too hard. I give myself a break and do something completely different to give my brain a vacation.

Do you have another career besides writing? What is it?
Well, as of this interview, I am unfortunately not employed. But for the last several years I have worked in call centers.

What’s your biggest reward in being a writer?
Knowing people are reading my books. Hopefully they like them.

To date, which is your favorite story? Which one did you have the most fun writing?
Wow, that’s a tough one. But I would have to say my favorite would be Midnight Blue. The one that was most fun to write was Infidelity. I let my inner bad boy out to play.

How do you go about developing your characters and setting?
I start with a character, either male or female, and put them in a situation, either good or bad, one they want to stay in or get out of, then take the plot from there, and add in lots of details.

If you had the opportunity to say one thing to your readers, what would that be?
Thank you to everyone who has bought my stories. I appreciate all the support, and there is more coming!

Visit Jon at:http://hstrial-jonbradbury.intuitwebsites.com