Author Interview- Jeff Chapman

1) What inspired you to write?

I have a strong desire to craft stories. Where does that desire come from? I don’t know, but it’s been a part of me since my youth. Maybe all the time I spent at the library during summer vacations had something to do with it. The inspiration for particular stories is easier to pin down. For example, the Merliss Tales were inspired by a cat that my family adopted off the street. Smokey arrived at our house one day begging for food. She was sick and starving. After a trip to the vet, we had a new cat. Smokey possessed several old battle scars. One of her ears was notched and two of her four canines were missing. This gave me the idea for a character based on an old soul in a cat’s body. Merliss was born.

2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?

Definitely! I read and listen to audiobooks. Some of my favorite writers include Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Neil Gaiman, Brandon Sanderson, Robert E. Howard, Franz Kafka, Charles Todd, Ann Cleeves, and Michael Connelly. I could list many more. I read from a variety of genres. I’ve yet to find a writer who doesn’t have something to teach me.

3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?

My most recent novel is The Sniggard’s Revenge. This is a YA-fantasy about a young man’s quest to win a girl’s heart using an item he found in a haunted barrow. The Sniggard—the ancient guardian of the barrow—wants the item back. Events go from bad to worse to far worse. Blood is shed and the protagonist makes a couple trips to Faerie, a place filled with strange people and many dangers. I had intended The Sniggard’s Revenge to be a standalone but there’s more to the story, so a sequel is in the planning.

I’m at work on a novel in my Merliss Tales fantasy series. Merliss is the spirit of a young woman who has been trapped inside the body of a gray cat. She had been training to become a healer/shaman, so she retains some magical abilities, but she lives as a cat. The magic which transferred her spirit to the cat gives her physical body an unusually long life. We’re talking thousands of years. Merliss aids her human companions in their battles with disease and supernatural threats. I’ve written two novels in the series (The Great Contagion and Cat Sidhe) and a short story “The Water Wight.” My work in progress is The Breath of the Sea, which is set several centuries in the future from the first two novels. The story revolves around an injured mermaid and a dying girl who befriends the mermaid. Merliss is drawn into events to protect the mermaid.

4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?

Don’t get discouraged, don’t give up, and read more books. Study the writing craft to learn what goes into a good story. The only failed writer is one who stops writing.

5) What influenced you as a writer?

I remember some story writing assignments from grade school but those were derivative. I was probably sixteen when I started creating my own stories. These were Edgar Allan Poe-inspired stories of the weird and macabre. Fortunately, none of those early attempts have survived, but my initial interest in the macabre lingers in the darker elements of my fantasy tales. I’ve written in other genres, but I always come back to dark themes and fantastic worlds.

Links:

Home

https://www.facebook.com/JeffChapmanWriter

https://www.goodreads.com/JeffChapman

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jeff-chapman

https://books2read.com/ap/n0Qjkw/Jeff-Chapman

Author Interview: William Tchatchou

1) What inspired you to write?

What inspires me? Sometimes it’s reading good stories or reading bad ones. I find inspiration from a lot of places and I splice them together to make my ideas whole.

2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?

I love reading though my wife is a speed reading demon so I can never really do a book club with her due to my brain traveling at the speed of a salted snail. When in doubt I love horror, though fantasy and science fiction is my first love, a good horror novel is so hard to find that when I find one it’s my “thing” for years.

3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?

I self published the Hotel of Madness which is currently Book One of the Boy King Series. Currently Book Two which will hopefully help ruin Christmas so I’m excited about that.

4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?

Run. If you want to be an indie author go run a mile, feel the pain in your lungs and know that if you can survive that you can probably live with the anxiety of self publishing.

5) What influenced you as a writer?

H.P Lovecraft, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Charles Stross
You can find William Tchatchou:
– on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/william.tchatchou.author
– on Amazon at amazon.com/author/william.tchatchou

Daily Author Interview: Joanna Jackson

1) What inspired you to write?

I’ve always been an avid reader since I was little. I used to let my imaginations run wild and write short stories, but I never thought much about it. Then, when the pandemic struck, I had no job and nothing to look forward to. So, I started writing. What started out as a small idea turned into a short story, which became a full-length novel. I never looked back ever since.

2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?

Yes, I am a reader. I am always surrounded by my growing pile of unread books which I keep feeding every chance I get. Sweet romances are usually my go-to books, but I also love mystery, crime, thrillers, and fantasy books.

3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?

I just recently published my debut book on Amazon and other well-known platforms, called ‘The Undercover Billionaire’. It’s a sweet, wholesome romantic comedy with a twist. I’m currently working on my first adventure-fantasy-pirate novel as well. As for my future, I look forward to keeping on writing and creating as much as I can.

4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?

My advice is for them to go for it. Stop thinking that it isn’t the right time or you’re not good enough. You’ll never know if you don’t try. You won’t lose a thing. Self-publishing or indie publishing is a great place to start.

5) What influenced you as a writer?

A chance to escape reality and create a world of my dreams. The idea that I could develop a whole relationship, kingdom, fantasy, was all very inspiring and pushed me to keep on creating.

Daily Author Interview: Jasen Suhr

1. I was inspired to write once I started a middle school English project that was supposed to be only three pages and I wrote 18 cause of how much I loved the idea.
2. I read as much as I can at the moment. My favorites are Christie Goldstein, J.K. Rowling, Tolkien and Stephen kin
3. My newest work is Legends of Alveria: The Gathering, it’s available for Amazon and kindle unlimited, I plan on releasing a sequel to it within the year
4.I’m new to the literary field so no tips but would welcome them.
5. My mom was a huge inspiration to my writing, being a published author of several poems and books herself.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097J7JYFS/ref=cm_sw_r_fm_apa_glt_YC5PJP9FBQ8X30FY49PH

Daily Author interview: Celeste Stacy

1) Not sure what inspired me to write, I do know I get all these ideas for stories. So I write them down and not really sure how to stop it. It’s like breathing now for me:) 2) Not much of a reader now, too busy working and writing. Used to love to read, I loved all the dragon Lance chronicles series. 3) just published book 3 of my SAI series, which is a dark romance- horror book and working now on book 4 of that series. Also book 4 is going more dark. 4) My advice for new writers is write and write and edit, edit! 5)I’ve been influenced by Stephan King and Douglas Adams, Margaret Wiess and Tracy Hickman are some that come to mind.

Daily Author Interview: Kristy Brown

1. Reading inspired me to write. I wrote lots of poetry as a teen and when I had my first child I started writing short stories whilst he slept. One chapter lead to another and my first ever book happened. Around that time Harry Potter had become popular and her author story inspired me.
2. Big reader!! I think you have to read as much as possible in order to write. I usually read YA fantasy and Contemporary, but lately I’ve read books targeted at my own age! Where the Crawdads Sing is one of my latest favourites, but in YA I’d say Hush Hush, Fallen, Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini and the Selection series… oh and The Lux Series…there are so many!
3.My newest release is the third in my YA Paranormal Romance trilogy. Currently I’m writing a modern day retelling of Romeo and Juliet.
4. My advice is to read your work out loud then edit and audit again. Also don’t give up when you get a rejection!
5. Anything inspires me… Dreams, events, films, books, people…😊

Daily Author interview: Onia Fox

1) What inspired you to write?
Reading, I guess. Until more recently, I assumed everyone wanted to write a book.
2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?
Yes I am a reader. I seem to go through phases. As a teenager I read classics and some gothic – favourite author was Thomas Hardy. Now I enjoy nothing more than a low-brow sat on the beach. I also read a lot of indies.
If I had to choose one all time favourite, through all my phases – perhaps Joseph Heller Catch 22.
Like a first date, I love a book that makes me laugh.
3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?
I have published two novels and a short. My second novel is a travel suspense thriller called Listless in Turkey. It is probably a little too autobiographical, but great fun to write and hopefully read. I was invited to write an erotic short for a great online site, which I have now submitted. I am currently writing Enemies Closer, a procedural thriller set in Portsmouth U.K. and Turkey.
4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?
Formatting, marketing and sales are the tricky parts to publishing. I will irritate a lot of indies by advising not to over research, but take it one step, one hurdle at a time (and not mix metaphors). And ask – I had two fellow indies step up and help with covers and formatting.
5) What influenced you as a writer?
Lockdown. I knew I had a book in me, but it was fear of going stir crazy that finally got me writing. My first book Covid Blues And Twos is erotica, embarrassingly autobiographical and not intended for publication. After raised eyebrows, it was my partner who convinced me to publish.

Covid Blues And Twos: Covid Erotica https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08HBK35S5

Daily Author Interview: Andrea Johns

1.My very unusual upbring, and my many adventures,as a child and an adult. 2. Not really much of a reader. Love true crime stories and the paranormal. 3.Like a dandelion in the wind is the title of my book. This book took me 30 years from the time I started to jot down my memories in little note pads, on trains and busses. Then due to my limited education 14 years to bring it to publication at the ripe old age of 71. I have started to write my second book, on the paranormal. 4. The only advice I have for Indie Autors is Jot down your thoughts when they come to you and “NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAM” 5. My very unusual life, my family, friends and workmates that believed in me, and never let me give up. https://www.facebook.com/likeadandelioninthewind/

Daily Author Interview: Yasir Sulaiman

1. What inspired you to write?

My life. I have seen death thrice and have bounced back.
2) Are you a reader? What are some of your favorites?

I read life and I write what I understand. Haven’t even read my own books.

3) What is your newest work, and what is going to happen in the future?

Fire Again and in the future… Something bigger.

4) Do you have advice or tips for Indie Authors?

Not everyone likes the same fruit. If 90 per cent criticize you, be happy because you are unique.

5) What influenced you as a writer?

Revenge

Daily book interview: Miki J. Jones

1) Reading books and stories and wondering both if I could learn to write as well as the work I was reading, and if I could perhaps even write better than some I had read. 2) Yes. Judith McNaught. Nicholas Monsarrat. Wilbur Smith. 3) The third book in my Pretty Woman series. Who knows what the future holds? 4) Write. Just write what you know you want to. If you want to publish for sales, check in with critique partners and beta readers as you write, and use their feedback to help shape your tale and writing. 5) Reading all my mother’s Mills&Boon Penny Dreadfuls in my early teenage years.