September 22, 2012 by jlwylie

Interview with Author Blaize Nolynne

I have the extreme please of hosting author Blaize Nolynne on my blog today. Please enjoy this interview and keep your eye out for her new release coming soon!

1) Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I graduated in 2009 from the Children’s Institute of Literature and put out my first book the following December under a penname. I then went on decided to study to write adult fiction.

I am from Maine and was born and raised there. I love animals. I have two dogs and a bunny.

2) When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?

I began writing in 2009 after I graduated from the Children’s Institute of Literature in 2009 that following December I put out my first picture book. From there I put out my first adult genre fiction the following year.

3) How did you choose the genre you write in?

I love fiction! I decided on a topic that interests me and begins to write.

4) Where do you get your ideas?

I got it from the fact my father was a firefighter.

5) Do you ever experience writer’s block? Do you work with an outline, or just write?

I have never experienced writer’s block. I don’t use outlines either. I just write as I go.

6) Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?

Yes, Ray Bradbury! I loved his writing. I also loved the fact that it took him awhile before he made it, this is something I could relate to.

7) Can you tell us about your upcoming book?

It is called ‘District One Stand By: On the Bleeding Edge of Change’ which is the second one in the series.

Catisha Spadoni gets a phone call in which she wasn’t expecting. It spirals from there knowing someone deliberately did this to her former crew. She decided to take the case, in the mist of it all her personal life began falling apart.

“District One, Lieutenant Catisha Spadoni, speaking.” I answered the phone as I tried hard to unbury the phone from the stack of papers I was trying to do for Jack, our beloved Captain.

“Catisha, you are the person I actually wanted to talk to.” the voice on the other end said. I recognized him as Rick Johnson, my former Chief and Fire Marshal that I worked with in New York City.

“Well you got me, so I guess it is time to ask why you are calling.” I chuckled.

“Obviously you haven’t watched the news or you would already know why I am calling.”

I glanced at the clock. “The national news doesn’t start until a couple minutes when the commercial stop. I already watched the local news. Why what’s going on?” I asked.

“Breaking News from New York City. A Firehouse exploded in the early hours today. The Firehouse, trucks, and equipment are also destroyed. The firefighters who were sleeping at the time were inside. All except three made it out alive. Three are still unaccounted for. The rest have been hospitalized for injuries from severe to minor.” the national news anchor began.

“Oh my God!” I screamed as they showed the firehouse that I lived in. That was my former crew that was injured and also among the missing. Those were my brothers and sisters in that barn.

8) Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?

The only real parts of my book is the fact my father was a firefighter and I got to know these wonderful people. Everything else is fictional.

9) What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

I think each chapter has a different reason why it holds close to my heart. However I think Chapter 28 in ‘District One Stand By: On the Bleeding Edge of Change’ would be my favorite from the book. It is were ‘Angel’ a new character comes in.

10) What project are you working on now? Will you have a new book coming out soon?

Yes, I am working on ‘District One Stand By: Love Beyond the Flame’ which is the third in the series.

District One Stand By: On the Bleeding Edge of Change is coming out in less then 12 weeks.

11) Are there certain characters you would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with?

I don’t know how to answer that. I have my favorite characters, but each of them have a reason why they do the things they do. I wish in book one I added Jimmy and Angel, two new characters.

The theme of Catisha’s life is what I go with.

12) Do you have any advice to give to aspiring writers?

Yes, NEVER give up!!! I got plenty of rejection letters in the beginning of my career and then I began rejecting contracts. Now I am happy with my publishing company! Even if you have to self publish get out there!!!

13) Is there anything that you would like to say to your readers and fans?

Thank you for all of the support!!! I would also like to say part of the proceeds of this series go to the 9-11 Foundation and the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation, two very important Foundations to me. It may never take away the pain of loosing a love one on duty, but I would love to help in any way I can.

FUN QUESTIONS!

1) If you were a superhero (or villain!) what would your power be? Would you wear a cape?

To Heal the world from diseases- especially cancer.

2) Chocolate, Strawberry or Vanilla? Chocolate!

3) The light side or the dark side? Light Side

4) If you could live off of chocolate would you? What kind? I would! I love dark chocolate.

5) What do you think the coolest pet to have would be? I think having the animals I have are the coolest pets.

6) If you could visit any world (real or imagined) where would you go? I would visit each and every fire station.

July 26, 2012 by jlwylie

Interview with Author Olga Vannucci

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Olga Vannucci, author of Travels With George. Please enjoy our interview and check out her book!

1) Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I was born in Italy and came to the U.S. for college. I’ve been here ever since. I live in rural New Jersey with my son, George. When he was seven years old, I realized suddenly that I hadn’t been back to Italy in ten years, and I went, and took him along. Then I went four more times, and I wrote a book about those trips, a mix of travelogue, personal history, and little anecdotes: “Travels With George.”

2) Do you have a day job as well?

I have a full-time job that involves numbers rather than words. I’m divorced and I write on Sunday afternoons when my son is with his father.

3) When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?

I started writing my one book in my late 40s and finished it two years later. It takes a lot of personal discipline to write a whole book, and I did not have it when I was younger.

4) How did you choose the genre you write in?

I wrote the type of book I like to read. I love to read travel memoirs and books about exotic places. I am inspired and awed by writers who put themselves out there, who are able to observe and interpret very different situations, and who can be funny too. Two books I have loved recently are “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” by Alexandra Fuller, about growing up in Africa, and “Running Away to Home” by Jennifer Wilson, about Croatia.

5) Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?

I went with self-publishing because I didn’t have the patience to pursue other publishers. What I like about self-publishing is that it’s all mine, I created the book cover, I chose the font, I am doing all my own promotion, and it’s been incredibly fun and very rewarding.

6) How do you market your work? What avenues have you found to work best for your genre?

Early on, I had an opportunity to read from my book at a gathering of 150 women through an organization called New Act Women in New Jersey. If you are as shy as I am, I would not necessarily recommend this large an event. I was extremely nervous, but it went really well. Once I realized it was working, that the audience was listening and responding, I relaxed. I sold a bunch of books right there, and it was a great way to put myself out there and to get an instant response. I realized that my book had appeal.

7) How did you come up with the title?

It came to me suddenly as I was driving through Doylestown, PA, one day. It’s based on Steinbeck’s book “Travels With Charley” about his travels with his dog, though I am no Steinbeck of course. When I told my son about it (he’s the George in “Travels With George”), he said, “So I’m the dog?”

8) What project are you working on now? Will you have a new book coming out soon?

I’m working on two new projects. I’m working on a book of travels with my son in the U.S. America is so varied, there’s so much to see and do. The other project is around cooking with my mother. She is a fantastic cook, and I can’t boil an egg. I am building a book around her recipes, and around her and me. I think it will be really cool.

9) What has been the best compliment given to you as an author?

The best compliment is hearing from others about the things that spoke to them in the book, and they range from the more profound to the totally mundane situations. Women will focus on the mothering aspects of the book, dealing with my son. Men enjoy my description of how Italians give directions: they start from a place you’ve never heard of, proceed vaguely, and stop well before your destination. Apparently that’s happened to others… They can relate, and I love when people tell me they can relate to something I wrote about.

10)Do you have any advice to give to aspiring writers?

Don’t give up! There are so many options today to publish and distribute and get the word out, and it can be done without a big financial investment. All you need is the investment of time. Given that this is your passion, you want to spend your time on it anyway. And there are so many people who are open to help, don’t be afraid to ask. Putting your thoughts out there to share with others is a gift, and people respond very kindly.

FUN QUESTIONS!

1) If you were a superhero (or villain!) what would your power be? Would you wear a cape?

I’m the most curious person on earth, so my power would be … knowing things. It would be so great!

2) Chocolate, Strawberry or Vanilla?

Definitely chocolate! With mix-ins.

3) The light side or the dark side?

The light side, the airy side, the side of beauty and novelty and independence.

4) Do you have deep dark secret? How about a shallow grey one?

I’d say shallow grey ones, multiple ones, and they’re not really secrets, just things I would just as soon not blurt out unprovoked.

5) What sort of coffee would you order? Simple coffee, complicated soy-non-fat-extra-espresso-half-caff-nightmare?

Tall latte and it bugs me that it’s tall and not small.

6) If you could live off of chocolate would you?

I kind of do, I live on chocolate ice cream, with mix-ins.

7) Have you ever lost your wallet/purse? Did you find it again if so?

I’m a compulsive double and triple checker, so I would be very upset if I lost my wallet or purse or car keys or phone. I would have to switch to quadruple checking. I could go mad altogether.

8) When you rip out a page from a spiral notebook, do you leave the strip with the tabby pieces in? Or do you have to remove them?

I have to remove them because they tickle the notebook.

Check out:

Travels With George: A Memoir Through the Italy of My Childhood

By Olga Vannucci

Don’t miss Olga’s website at
http://olgavannucci.com
with some pictures and some snippets from the book.

or her Facebook page that can be reached via
http://travelswithgeorge.com
.

Her book is on Amazon, both the printed and the Kindle versions, at
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=olga+vannucci

July 13, 2012 by jlwylie

Book Bloggers! Swag packs available!

Hi everyone!

I have some really cool stuff to promote my last release, Flashy Fiction and Other Insane Tales, an anthology with my most wonderful partner Sean Hayden.

I’m offering up some neat swag kits to book bloggers out there to use in giveaways. Kits are limited.

What’s inside:

Bookmarks (pic shows front and back) Let me know how many you need, I’ve quite a few.

1 “Postcard” of book cover. (With info about the book on the back so technically not really a postcard-but anyways)

1 Large Calendar magnet (limited quantities!)

1 Small face magnet (about the size of a business card)

If you have a book blog and would be interested please email me at jenniferw2mail (at) gmail.com and I’ll mail them off to you asap. If you would also be interested in reviewing Flashy, it is available as a PDF or can be gifted to you through Amazon. Just let me know if you’d like a copy and in what format.

Big thank you’s to all the readers and book bloggers out there for all that you do!

Flashy Fiction and Other Insane Tales by Jen Wylie and Sean Hayden

An anthology of the strange, bizarre, and just plain weird.

Zombies, vampires, ghosts, and …crickets? Try a taste of writing from two very different fantasy authors. Flash stories are super short and perfect for when you ‘just have a minute’. This anthology contains 15 stories from authors Sean Hayden and Jen Wylie. Run the rampart of emotions in this exciting mix of tales. From humor to twisted, there is something for everyone.

Note: Some stories contain adult language.

Available at Amazon

Ebook 1.99 and Print 7.99

March 26, 2012 by jlwylie

Music Inspires Us to Write by Donna Galanti

Music inspires us to feel emotions. You’ve felt it. Music to dance by, to love by, to cry by.

But just what is inspiration? As a writer you work to improve your craft through techniques, writing exercises, or attending workshops. This is the technical aspect all writers need to do.

But where does that dreamy quality come from then? That flash of idea that pushes our fingers to fly over the keyboard? For me its music that pushes me to new emotions that envelop my characters. Some writers listen to music while writing. Some write in total silence. I listen to music before I write. In A Human Element I gave my characters and scenes theme songs that inspired me to write the book. And when I drew near the end of the book I listened to their theme songs more and wrote slower, for I didn’t want the characters to leave me. I wanted them to stay. And here are their songs.

Laura’s Song:

In A Human Element, Laura Armstrong has an early foundation of love and a free-spiritness about her that carries her through life, even as tragedy follows her. Hope keeps her going and the memory of love. Her song “Incredible Machine (Interlude)” by Sugarland calls to me of Laura’s gentle strength. For, like the song, Laura has ‘a heart that beats. An incredible machine made of blood and love and hope and lust and steam’.

Laura looked back up at him. She remembered all the people she had lost in her young twenty-six years. She didn’t want to lose Ben too, but she feared getting too close. She could lose him too. Then something swelled inside her. She barely recognized it. It was hope that maybe love could win out over evil and Ben would be the one to help her stop it. She hoped.

And then she could only think of one word to say to him.

“Stay.”

Ben’s Song:
Ben is a loner who exiles himself from life after suffering at the hands of cruel and pitiful characters. He is Laura’s opposite twin of darkness to her hope and yet he is cut from the same song, “Incredible Machine” by Sugarland. Only Ben’s song is the primitive version of the song, full tilt. For he too is ‘an incredible machine made of blood and love and hope and lust and steam’. A raging machine.

Ben fell into a deep sleep but couldn’t escape the night. In his nightmares the Samoans laughed as they whipped him. His foster father joined them, snapping the whip on his back and cursing him for letting him die. Murderer! Then he fell off a cliff. The wind rocked his body but didn’t push him back to safety.

He screamed as he fell into the darkness. He tried to grab onto something but it was a black, empty abyss. Then a bright green light appeared above him. It grew larger and larger. He shielded his eyes as he fell, terrified. The green light rushed faster and faster towards him. It came for him. It would crush him just like it crushed his parents.

And he knew he was headed straight to hell.

Laura and Ben’s Songs:

Ben finds himself drawn in by Laura. “Come a Little Closer” by Dirks Bentley reveals their tenderness together that exists outside the dark that follows them.

He wanted to love this woman. He wondered what he was to do with this new feeling. Could he feel love for a woman finally at thirty-six years old? It felt foreign and terrifying yet it pulled him in like an addiction.

“I’m not going to let you go. Not yet, anyways,” he told Laura, as she slept. “But you just might let me go when you find out my past. Can I keep it from you?”

In keeping love in her heart, Laura tries to teach Ben that love never forgets. “Love Remembers”. And this is their song by Craig Morgan.

Ben withdrew from her and fell back into bed. “No one ever showed me love before. I haven’t known love since my parents died. I guess I forgot what it was.”

Ben stared at the ceiling with his hands under his head. She sensed he tried to resist telling her his deepest feelings. Laura could see his profile clearer now as the room grew lighter with sunrise.

She felt him freezing up on her. “Love remembers.”

“Does it?” He twitched his mouth and shook his head. “I don’t know if I believe it.”

Ben and Laura, unravel a frightening mystery that binds them together and they find themselves in a race to stop a mad man. When hope falls away they fall into one another. One more night may be all they have left. “Tonight” by Sugarland is their song as they grasp ‘a lifetime for a day would be an even trade. I know how it feels to breathe with you beside me’.

“Do you still want me?” Laura’s voice cracked, with need and emotion.

“What do mean?”

“I’m not all …you know…real.” She hid her face in his arm holding her. She wanted one more night with Ben. Then she could say goodbye. But just let me have one more night.

“You are real. You’re the most human person I’ve ever known.”

She just looked at him and tilted her head, unsure what to believe. Ben’s feelings burned over her, leaving her awash in want and need and belonging.

There comes a time in A Human Element when Laura finally loses hope, yet Ben’s heart breathes hope for the first time in years. Hope that Laura won’t give up on him. He can’t forget her and for him “Every mile a memory” by Dirks Bentley haunts him.

So Ben held her and murmured words of reassurance to her. He loved her. They could make a life together. It was over. But it didn’t matter in the end, after all. When he woke up she was gone.

He stood at the motel window overlooking fields that graced the highway. Trucks roared by to their destination. He had no destination now, without Laura.

He watched the sun rise on another day, determined to find her.

The villain: X-10’s songs:

X-10 is a tormented man, unloved and forgotten. Is that enough to forgive the awful acts he commits? Music from the Gladiator soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard permeated the writing of X-10 including the battle scene, barbarian horde, and now we are free. Who is this X-10? Part man, part other-world, part mad man, part lost soul? Find out for yourself. These songs reveal the dark emotions within this villain.

X-10 tore off his remaining clothes as he ran. He was finally free of all that held him in the human world. He would show them. They couldn’t hurt him. So pathetic were these humans who needed one another. They were weak in mind and of mortal flesh. They could not kill him. If they injured him he would heal himself.

He was not human. He was the strong one. He would survive.

He needed no one.

How does music inspire you in writing? Does it help you capture that extra emotion in your characters and what they do? For me I couldn’t write without it. And now my characters will come back to me as I write the sequel, A Hidden Element. Oh, how I’ve missed them.

About A Hidden Element
One by one, Laura Armstrong’s friends and adoptive family members are being murdered, and despite her unique healing powers, she can do nothing to stop it. The savage killer haunts her dreams, tormenting her with the promise that she is next.

Determined to find the killer, she follows her visions to the site of a crashed meteorite–her hometown. There, she meets Ben Fieldstone, who seeks answers about his parents’ death the night the meteorite struck. In a race to stop a mad man, they unravel a frightening secret that binds them together. But the killer’s desire to destroy Laura face-to-face leads to a showdown that puts Laura and Ben’s emotional relationship and Laura’s pure spirit to the test.

With the killer closing in, Laura discovers her destiny is linked to his and she has two choices–redeem him or kill him.

Readers who devour paranormal books with a smidge of horror and steam will enjoy A Hidden Element, the new novel about loss, redemption, and love.

Reviewers are saying…
“A Hidden Element is an elegant and haunting first novel. Unrelenting, devious but full of heart. Highly recommended.” –Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author of ASSASSIN’S CODE and DEAD OF NIGHT

“A Hidden Element is a haunting look at what it means to be human. It’s a suspenseful ride through life and love…and death, with a killer so evil you can’t help but be afraid. An excellent read.” –Janice Gable Bashman, author of WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE, nominated for a Bram Stoker Award.

About the Author:
Donna Galanti is the author of the dark novel A Human Element (Echelon Press). She won first place for Words on the Wall Fiction at the 2011 Philadelphia Writer’s Conference. Donna has a B.A. in English and a background in marketing. She is a member of International Thriller Writers, The Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group and Pennwriters. She lives with her family in an old farmhouse in PA with lots of nooks, fireplaces, and stinkbugs. Visit her at: www.donnagalanti.com

LIKE Donna’s Author Facebook page for news and updates! Her tour runs through April 11th^h with book giveaways, more guest posts, and interview fun, and a chance to win the big prize giveaway! So pop over to her blog to see the full tour schedule.

Connect with Donna here:

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/DonnaGalanti

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/DonnaGalantiAuthor

Blog:
http://blog.donnagalanti.com/wp/

Purchase A HUMAN ELEMENT here:

Amazon: