Posted in Creekside Cafe, interview

Kaitlyn Kalor Visits Creekside Cafe

Kaitlyn Kalor is a 9-year Navy Vet, having spent most of the first decade of the century on active duty. She grew up in the Pacific Northwest, giving her a love of the mountains that she enjoys daily viewing as she now lives in Colorado. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Security and a Master of Business Administration that she earned after the Navy. She has the weaknesses of Vampires, having porphyria. Vampiric myths about their sun weakness were based upon this illness. She is also a Transgender author.

https://www.amazon.com/author/kkalor

Welcome Kaitlyn Kalor to Creekside Café. I am so excited to be hosting my first author from Tea with Coffee Media https://twitter.com/TeaWCoffeeMedia. Thank you for stopping by my virtual café.

Kaitlyn: Thank you for letting me come by.

Sherri: You spent nine years in the Navy? I have a son who has been in for almost two years. He has just finished his rescue swimmer certification. What was your job in the Navy? Do you use it now that you are a civilian again? Does your time in the Navy influence any of your writing?

Kaitlyn: I was a computer repair for the first 6 years of my time in the Navy. My last 3 was spent as one of their white hat hackers. As a repair person, I managed to half fill a passport in 2 years traveling all over the world to include catching a flight to a carrier from Japan and flying out from Hong Kong. When I left the military, I worked for a Software company that developed software for the Government but after I left that job, the only aspect I still use is the technical writing I did for the Government.

I have a point in the book where one of the characters visit a native city whose design was directly influenced by the time I spent 3 months in Naples and the cities I visited while doing a network install there.

Sherri: You grew up in the Pacific Northwest, I have not been that far west. I’ve only been as far as Wyoming and New Mexico. My niece is out in Washington, and I hope to visit her and her wife one day. My sister-in-law has been out there a couple of times. Do you set any of your stories in Pacific Northwest? Where are your stories set?

Kaitlyn: I currently have no plans to use the Pac NW in the series due to the cultures I am involving. While I have several books planned for the Americas, the time frame puts most of the north under 2 km of ice. The books start 400,000 years in the past, but with Earth looking a little different. The image below is what Earth looks like at the start.

Book one starts between Africa and Asia, in a location that eventually becomes the Middle East. I have a plan that is very very loosely based upon a few scientific theories that will bring the planet inline with how we know the planet to look like.

Sherri: You hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Security and a Master’s in Business Administration. No offense but they hardly seem like creative pursuits. How did you go from computer security and business to being an author?

Kaitlyn: At the time I picked up my degrees, I was heavily involved with both in my company. I started writing when I was 17, in the days of Dial up internet with a Star Trek Play By e-Mail Roleplay group. I started a book with a friend in 2003, but that was never finished due to life for both of us.

In 2015, my company let me go. My health at the time started to slide so I started to stream on Twitch until my pain was too much to focus. I will say this, writing good research papers did help my technical performance in writing.

Sherri: What does Pride Month mean for you?

Kaitlyn: I have no option for it. It’s taken decades for me to accept who I am and to figure it out that I am transgendered. This apathy is a side effect from growing up in a Super-Christian household who preached separation, so I disassociated a lot of things, from birthdays to all holidays as I just didn’t grow up with them.

Sherri: Do you know where your inspiration came from for your novel Dawn of Humanity or the series Generations of Humanity? Did you first get started with a character or scene?

Kaitlyn: The story idea came to me one day in early 2018 when I fell into that part of YouTube. The video suggested that Atlantis might have been in Western Africa, the Eye of the Sahara, or its other name, Richart Structure. By the time I had finished watching, I had a basic outline in my head, covering at least 25 books. It has undergone several revisions since then, but the primary story arc has remained the same.

Sherri: Are you a plotter or a pantser? How do you write? Is this your first novel? How long have you been writing?

Kaitlyn: This is my first completed novel that was started in 2018, but I’ve been writing since 1997, mostly Fanfiction.  I am a planster right now. Draft 1 was written by the seat of my pants, then I started using the snowflake method to plan out the rest of the series. Draft 1 was a dual timeline novel, with a group from today discovering the past and re-living memories of the Aliens. I ended up scrapping most of my first draft because the second half of the series didn’t work due to power creep, and I couldn’t find an interesting way to keep the current timeline involved with the past. When I went to do draft 2, I ripped out the modern timeline and everything slid into place.

Sherri: How many books will be in this series? What is the overall theme? What do you hope readers will think or feel when they finish your book?

Kaitlyn: The series is currently planned for 22 books plus an apocalyptic trilogy to wrap up everything at the end.

I am hopeful that my books have my readers looking into our history, learning about civilizations that helped create our current world. I have a plan to write worldwide cultures to include African and American Gods. Morimi is the Yoruba Goddess of Fire for example, and she will have a strong role in the series. 

Sherri: Tell me about some of your characters. How would you describe them? What is their theme song?

Kaitlyn: The series uses the concepts of the Yuga’s from Hinduism and Reincarnation. While my ages are shorter than the ones in Hinduism, the concept of the Earth going through Cycles is a key plot point. Right now, I plan on having 6 major ages.

With this in mind, we learn that Enki is a new soul, learning about the world for the first time, while his biological father, Enlil, has been reincarnated several times. Chronos as well. The Anunnaki and Annunaki Titans are Reptilian aliens. Think of the smaller creatures from 1993’s Jurassic Park (Their fake Raptors for example Dilophosaurus) but upright like Humans. They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

This is Papsukkal, Gaia’s bodyguard. He is dedicated to protecting her, as he protected her father and grandfather. He very much is like “Another One Bites the Dust” when defending his charges from attack.

Gaia, Khione, and Morimi are Humanaki, they can shift their body sizes from 3 meters plus to human size. They have powers of Earth, Water (Ice), and Fire respectively.

Enki’s Theme song is Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin

F**kin’ Perfect by Pink is Gaia’s theme

Legendary is Chrono’s theme song.

Bad Blood by Taylor Swift is the theme when the two Sky Lords get ready to face off at the end.

Sherri: Kaitlyn, this has been fun. Give us 10 quick, fun facts about you.

Kaitlyn: I am one of the first Navy CTN ratting that was created in 2005. I am a Twitch streamer (when my health allows it), and a Twitch Moderator for a Twitch Partner.

I remember WebTV as my father was one of the few adopters of it. I was the kid who played Oregon Trail in computer labs on the old Apple IIe computers before I was homeschooled. I’ve used NetZero and Juno for dial up internet. My first home computer was a Commodore 64 where I’d end up playing games like F-14 Tomcat. I’d swipe the AOL floppy disc’s from the store entrance whenever I needed floppies.

Being homeschooled, I read a LOT of books. I’d ride my bike 10 miles to the local bookstore and spend the day reading, on most days back when Pagers were all the rage. I’d finish a paperback most days. That’s when I started my writing, via e-mail role play, but I never thought I would be good enough to become an actual author but here we are with my first book coming out 25 years later.

I love Tabletop RPGs, but I tend to be given the role of Game Master. I currently run a game based upon the book with a few from Tea With Coffee Media, for purely selfish reasons. They are helping me flush out the rest of the world.

As I live in Colorado, I grow my own cannabis in hydroponics for my pain management, but I’ve started branching out to grow things like Potatoes and other food in my grow tents.

Sherri: Congratulations on your debut novel. Good luck with your series. I look forward to hearing from you again.

If you all enjoyed this interview, check out Kaitlyn’s book “The Dawn of Humanity” available for pre-order, the links are below, follow her on social media and don’t forget to leave a review. Thanks again for stopping by.

Releases June 21st, 2022!

Book Blurb:

Thousands of years after their planet’s ruin, the Anunnaki and Titans led by Sky Lord An find their way to planet Earth. When this reptilian species lands on Earth, they discover a connection to their powers only described from the days of Olympus.

Sa-Tan Enki led a team of Anunnaki on a mission and set out to create a race of beings that mixed humanity with immortality. However, some of the Titans led by Chronos are unhappy with the creations. What happens when Chronos seeks revenge upon his brother Enlil? To cleanse the new planet of the bastard race, the Titans revolt against the newfound Olympians. Find out what happens in the first book of Generations of Humanity: Dawn of Humanity

My Social Media links are:

http://twitter.com/theciroth

https://www.amazon.com/author/kkalor

https://www.goodreads.com/kkalor

BookBub coming soon

Book Links Available for Pre-order! Releases June 21st!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W4F2LX2?tag=publishdriv01-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1
https://itunes.apple.com/book/id1616162427
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dawn-of-humanity-k-kalor/1141251614?ean=9781957893006
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=z0FlEAAAQBAJ
https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/search?query=9781957893006
https://bookmate.com/books/fk6YtDTb
https://www.24symbols.com/book/english/k-kalor/dawn-of-humanity?id=4018970
https://www.gardners.com/Search/KeywordAnonymous/eBook?Keyword=9781957893006&fq=14123

If you are an author looking for a virtual coffee shop to hang out, stop by Creekside Cafe. We’ll treat you so many ways you’re bound to like one of them.

Posted in Creekside Cafe, interview, promo

Welcome Back to Creekside Cafe Tiffany Christina Lewis

I’d like to welcome my fellow crime fiction author, Tiffany Christina Lewis back to Creekside Café. Y’all may remember our previous interview. Tiffany is a publisher at Rebellion LIT, she works tirelessly to support other authors. I was lucky enough to have been interviewed on Rebellion LIT. Welcome Tiffany, it’s so good to have you back.

Tiffany: Thank you for speaking with me again Sherri! I will never forget our last interview because you helped me get over my hesitation to write Romance. Shortly after our interview, I was able to write two romance plots. A short story and a novella, so I am very grateful for our chats! 

Sherri: You have a new book coming out. Is this part of your crime series?

Tiffany: No, this new book is a short story collection. Helpless is my opposition to the tropes of true crime. As much as I love true crime, women are often seen as victims in the shows and they are rarely shown as survivors. It’s just the formula the channels are using that has given them the best ratings. My book includes eight stories of women who rise above adversity, save themselves and those around them and take control of their lives. I feature Crime Fiction, Romance, Sci-Fi, Paranormal, and Adventure stories. I’m very proud of the stories I’ve offered!

Sherri: Tiffany is the author of six books and has been published in more than a dozen anthologies and magazines. I know this isn’t an easy answer, but what inspires your writing?

Tiffany: Everything inspires my writing, but I think my stories come from characters first. For instance, with my Michael Taylor series, I knew Michael first. He is based on one of my long-time celebrity crushes, and truly, the idea just came to me based on the idea of the character. The same thing happened with my new release. I knew all the women first, then their profile created the story I wanted to tell. More recently, I’ve been inspired by the books I read. I’ve been reading 3-5 books a month, depending on the length of course, but the Indie authors I read always inspire me and give me ideas by creating worlds I can get submerged in and for my imagination to chew on.

Sherri: What inspired this new book? The blurb from Janae Bunn called it a book dedicated to the craziness, determination, and spirit of grit that women possess. I’d like to know more about that.

Tiffany: The characters definitely inspired this book. It started with one story. I was waiting at a vanpool stop to pick up my boyfriend after work and it was in the Fall so it was pretty dark out. All of a sudden I had the wild thought of someone smashing my car window with a brick. lol. Crazy, I know, and I was in a completely safe environment. There were tons of people waiting with me there, but as I explored the idea more, I created the story of Rainey, which is a crime fiction story in the collection. Each story really started with the woman, her struggle, and a big moment. Some stories are gritty, some are a little crazy and all of the women are determined.

Sherri: As you know, I like kick-ass women characters. I believe that sometimes we have to be the heroes in our own stories and rescue ourselves.

Tiffany: Absolutely! I think Fiction does a great job of presenting women like that, especially now. As I say in the introduction to my book, women are not just a ball of emotions, they can fight and they can win!

Sherri: What are you planning to do next?

Tiffany: I’m actually in the process of editing Michael Taylor number four but after that, I think I’ll take a step back from my own books and really put my publisher hat on. I have a poetry book to release under Rebellion LIT and I’ve been pushing back the start of our first Anthology release. I wanted it to be coming this summer, but obviously not… I’ll need to take some time away from my books to get this done because my Rebellion “staff” consists of 3 people and I’m the only one who releases the books so it’s a lot of work. Doing the author and publisher thing at the same time is challenging and I want to give my all to the authors I’ll be serving.

Sherri: Tiffany resides in Sacramento, CA with her family and Miniature Pinscher. This has been a difficult year and a half especially for those of you who live in larger cities, how have you managed during the pandemic?

Tiffany: I have been very blessed. My job as well as my boyfriend’s offered us work alternatives, so I was able to work from home with full pay. As a preschool teacher, my duties were very limited initially but this school year things ramped up. It did give me a lot of time at home that I wouldn’t typically have. We couldn’t go anywhere, I eliminated my commute, so I was able to write and fully plan this book release. It’s really been excellent for my writing career but not as good for my classroom. I am concerned about how my students will do in Kindergarten and I hope our state has a plan for these children who have had so little socialization.

Sherri: While I’m sure everyone will agree there’s been a lot of awful following on the tails of Covid-19, there have also been some wonderful innovations, ideas, friendships, and blessings. Do you have a special something to lift our readers?

Tiffany: I have definitely had a chance to connect with a lot more authors, interact more, share ideas and grow as an author during this time, believe it or not! Being on social media more, which I think we all have been, has actually been good for me. It has been the only way I could meet like-minded people during this time. Zoom has even played a role in my social life, outside of work! I also think the deeper connections I made with family have been a mirrored experience of others. Just checking in with family more and wishing more people well has made me feel joyful.

Sherri: I know you like to help other writers, what advice would you give a new writer? What would you say to one publishing their first book? What advice do you wish you’d had before becoming a published author?

Tiffany: I actually had a TON of advice before publishing. My mentor was a five-time published author who then became my publisher and she told me what I tell people all the time now, the number one advice I would give a new writer is to write another book! I would follow that up with please get a professional editor and an amazing book cover. Releasing your best work and putting a great face on it is step one, but if you don’t have another book coming soon, it can be hard to keep the momentum of your career. Especially depending on the genre of the book. The literary industry is so complicated, but on a lower level, writing another book means you are writing and writing is the best way to get better at writing.

Sherri: Like the strong women you write about, you embody the spirit of your heroines. Tell us again how we can find your books and remind us of your latest.

Tiffany: My latest release is Helpless: A Short Story Collection, with 8 stories of women kicking butt and taking names! To see all my titles you can check my website here https://tiffanychristinalewis.com/books/, Find my Amazon Book Store here: http://author.to/TiffanyChristinaLewis

Book Blurb: 

Content and Trigger Warnings for this title and all titles by Tiffany Christina Lewis are available at https://tiffanychristinalewis.com/books/

“Finally, a book dedicated to the craziness, determination, and spirit of grit that women possess.” — Janae Bunn

Women are powerful and can be rational thinkers under pressure. They can also be devious and vengeful. A woman is not just a ball of emotion. Women can fight, they can protect, and they can win.

These eight stories of women kicking ass, standing tall, and refusing to be victims are Tiffany’s opposition to the tropes of true crime. With stories from five genres including Paranormal, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Romance, and Crime Fiction, you are sure to find a story you love.

“Tiffany Christina Lewis branches out with new stories that will have you at the edge of your seat and wanting more! Her writing now explores the realms of paranormal, science fiction, and romance with short stories that will entrance her readers.” — Joseph S. Samaniego author of the Legends of the Carolyngian Age series

Here is a link to the book as well: https://getbook.at/HelplessShortStories

Sherri: Thank you for stopping by my virtual café, it was so good to have you back. I wish you much success on your latest book and hope we can get together again soon.

Thank you so much, Sherri! I appreciate your time. I included book links for Helpless below. Autographed: https://bit.ly/HelplessShortStories Bookstores: https://books2read.com/HelplessShortStories Amazon: https://getbook.at/HelplessShortStories Goodreads: https://buff.ly/32wHKVJ

Tiffany Christina Lewis
Novelist of Crime Fiction

Home

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTiffanyChristinaLewis

https://www.goodreads.com/authortclewis

Posted in contest, event

Writing Competition

Jonathan Clayborne, Haunted Pamlico

Dear Writers:

In 2021, Haunted Pamlico and the Pamlico Writers Group are teaming up again to sponsor the second-annual Haunt Season Writing Competition. We’re seeking poems, ghost stories, creepy tales, science fiction or horror fiction related to the haunting season, which peaks in October.

We will accept prose entries of 2,000 words or poems of unspecified length by email at hauntedpamlico1@gmail.com. We’ll take submissions from May 1 through Aug. 1. The entries will be judged by the Writers Group and Haunted Pamlico. We’ll present awards to a winner and two finalists during our Carnival of Darkness film festival in September.

Selected entries may appear in a Pamlico Writers Group anthology.

When you enter, please include your full name, email address and mailing address in the body of the email. All work must be original, and you must hold exclusive rights to any work you submit. 

It’s free to enter the competition, which is open to writers anywhere. For more information, email us at hauntedpamlico1@gmail.com.

Good luck! 

 

Sincerely,

Haunted Pamlico

Posted in interview

A Warm Friendly Chat with Hannah Meredith

also known as Merry Simmons

I am thrilled to welcome Hannah Meredith to Creekside Café, my dream job if I ever win the lottery or get a million-dollar movie deal, for now, the café only exists on my website. Hannah and I are both members of Romance Writers of America and our local Heart of Carolina RWA. We met at local meeting and became friends. I have learned as much from riding in a car with her as I have from classes I’ve attended. It’s so good to have you here, Hannah.

Hannah: Thanks. It’s great to be here. Your café is so warm and friendly, it’s a great place for a chat.

Sherri: I have been blessed to have met some wonderful writers and interesting people through RWA and HCRW. You are one of my favorite people. You came into writing romance from a little bit different angle, tell our readers about your interesting path to publishing.

Hannah: Well, first of all, I’m honored to be included in your “favorite people” group. 😊 And I think my wandering journey to publication is pretty typical. Few of us seem to arrive there in a straight line.

Since I was a child, I’ve loved making up stories and have always been an avid reader, but like most of us, these impulses were overshadowed by just living life. I got a couple of degrees in English from SMU, married, taught at the high school and university level for 15 years, and then switched to a career in Real Estate for about 25 more… and then, finally, life slowed down enough that the characters who lived in my head could be heard screaming to get out.

Since I was still working, I figured writing short fiction was the way to go, but the market for short stories was quite limited. The one genre that still had a number of active magazines was science fiction and fantasy. I’d long been an enthusiastic reader of C.J. Cherryh, David Brin, Anne McCaffrey, etc., and so decided to give it a try. This pursuit was greatly advanced when I won the grand prize for the Writers of the Future Contest—which I highly recommend for those writing sf&f. It’s free to enter and has decent cash prizes and an excellent workshop. I went on to sell over a dozen stories to many of the major science fiction and fantasy magazines before switching to romance.

Now, if you add up all the years before I began writing seriously, it’s obvious that I was not a spring chicken when I got around to putting words on paper. But this is one of the joys of most any creative pursuit – age provides no barrier and instead brings a better knowledge of the world. I have a saying painted on my kitchen wall, “Some of the most interesting flowers in the garden are Late Bloomers” and I hope that applies to me.

Sherri: Well, I hope it applies to me as well, since I’m new to publishing and not quite fresh as a daisy myself.

I’ve been a fan of yours for several years. You started writing science fiction but when I first read your work you were already writing historical romance. How did you make the switch to romance?

Hannah: After writing short stories for a while, I wanted to expand my ideas into a fantasy novel. Alas, I must have been channeling George R.R. Martin as I wrote and wrote and wrote. After about 200,000 words, I realized what I had was—a mess. I’ve always read broadly and, consequently, had enjoyed a number of historical romances along the way. I recognized that this was a genre where I was not expected to fill such a large canvas, so decided to give it a try. The transition to romance was not easy, however. The reader expectations were very different, and the contacts I had in ss&f didn’t transfer to another genre. I was now sailing on uncharted waters. In this, the advice of other romance writers was really helpful, and the support and programs offered by the Heart of Carolina Romance Writers were priceless.

Linda Johnson, Hannah Meredith and me at 2019 HCRW Writers Workshop, photo by Donna Steele

Sherri: You started self-publishing early, how and why did you make the decision to self-publish?

Hannah: Submitting to a romance publisher was very different from sending a manuscript to a magazine editor in a genre where I had a track record. Now I had to start from scratch. The process was totally different. There were pitches and log lines and all sorts of dance steps I didn’t know and wasn’t sure I wanted to learn. And then, if I were successful, I would be looking at potentially a year before anything would make it to print. Okay, I am not getting any younger. I simply did not want to go through the process and take the time. Especially when self-publishing had become a viable option.

I also found self-publishing appealing since I’m a bit of a control freak. (I must admit here that my husband of 52 years would probably question the “a bit” part of that last sentence) I like the fact that I have control over what my covers look like. I like the fact that my stories don’t have to conform to what a given publisher thinks readers want rather than how I think a story should be told.  I like that my books will come out on a schedule of my own making.

I happily embraced self-publishing—and I’m glad I did.

Sherri: What changes have you seen in publishing since you first started? Do you think it is easier or more difficult for new writers?

Hannah: There’s been a consolidation in publishing caused by a lot of mergers and, unfortunately, by a number of disappearances of excellent mid-sized and smaller lines. All the Big Five New York publishers are now just a part of some bigger conglomerate. Penguin Random House is owned by Bertelsmann (German) and Pearson (British), Hachette by Lagardere Publishing (French), HarperCollins by News Corp (Australian), Macmillian by Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (German), and Simon & Schuster by CBS (American). Big conglomerates tend to streamline and so the number of editors has been reduced and their work load increased. If it seems to you that many traditionally published books aren’t as carefully edited as they have been in the past, this is the reason. But this has also reduced the number of slots for new authors. The best way to get a “foot in the door” is now through the eBook only imprints and these seldom pay an advance. So, while I have no personal experience, I would say finding a publisher is probably more difficult.  

Sherri: You do it all, write, publish, design your own covers, what advice would you give to other indie-authors who feel they don’t have a lot of money to invest in their first book?

Hannah: Yeah, doing it all is the control thing again. 😊 And I’m also afraid proves that I tend to be frugal. But anyone can put out a book without it costing a lot of money. Just remember that while everything you do yourself saves money, it takes up more of your time and adds to frustration. You need to determine what is important to you.

If you can use MS Word, or its cousin available on Apple products, you can produce a manuscript that can be made into both an eBook and a print file. If you follow Smashwords’ Style Guide, you can upload your manuscript directly to KDP and you should end up with a good product. I use Smashwords to upload all the other venders, and if I’ve followed the Style Guide, it will obviously upload to all the other places just fine. Now, this will be perfectly readable, but it will not have anything “fancy” on it. The plus is it costs you absolutely nothing. You can see what it will look like by emailing the manuscript to your Kindle. If there is anything weird, you didn’t follow the Style Guide. Alternately, you can pay someone to format both mobi and epub files to upload, Or you can use various purchased software, the most lauded being Vellum, which unfortunately for me, only works on a Mac. You’ll be able to personalize these.

You can use the same manuscript to build a print book. KDP has a template or you can make one using just Word, which is my choice. It’s more work, but I can make it prettier.

KDP also has templates on which you can build both an eBook and a print cover. These have worked well for many people. I use Photoshop to make my own. I took a $25 online class on Cover Making and got a Photoshop Elements on sale, so there was some initial outlay, but I’ve made a lot of covers for both myself and others. Now these are not award-winning covers, but I think they look professional. Or at least, professional-enough. If you need costumed people, you can buy them for about $10. For backgrounds I just use one of the stock photo places. I like Deposit Photos because about once a year they run a sale with 100 downloads for $39-49. I just finished the cover for an almost-completed Christmas story (I make covers when my brain is too tired to write) and it cost me $1.47. Yep, it’s made from pieces of three downloaded photos. 😊 If messing with covers is not your thing, there are a lot of sites where you can get a lovely pre-made cover personalized with your information for as low as $50.

One place you do not want to get cheap is with editing. Yeah, we all think we don’t need it, but this is usually the reason we see a bunch of not-ready-for-prime-time books appear from Indy authors. To get a comprehensive edit can be pricy, so you need to train yourself to do decent self-editing. Then also develop a group of “wise readers” who will give you honest feedback on where the book may go off the tracks. I’ve teamed up with some other authors I have confidence in, and we edit each other’s stories. I sometimes trade off book covers for editing. But before I developed this support group, I paid for edits. Again, this is one place to spend money.

The last potential cost is for an ISBN. You can get these for free from both KDP and Smashwords. I however, have purchased my own because I have my own imprint, Singing Spring Press. I think we’re back to control… I bought 100 from Bowker because they’re much cheaper that way. Of course, I’m in my 70’s and still bought 100. I think this is the definition of optimistic. 😊

Sherri: You have recently made a bit of switch into fantasy? What is the biggest challenge you face with changing genres?

Hannah: Changing genre makes finding readers a little trickier, but that’s the only difficulty. Song of the Nightpiper is a medieval-based, fantasy romance, so it was still in the same overall genre. The Christmas story I hope to publish shortly, The Last Gift, is also a fantasy romance.

Sherri: You and a few of you writer friends have been publishing an annual Christmas anthology for several years. Tell us about it. How did it start? How do you manage three other writers?

Hannah: Back in 2014, over lunch before the HCRW meeting, Kate Parker and I decided it would be fun to do a Christmas anthology. We each asked someone we thought would be a good fit, and the group was formed. Thus, Christmas Revels was born. We have just published Christmas Revels VI, and this simply has to be the last. I’m the cover maker and I can’t tweak any more semi-Christmasy colors out of the background file. 😊

I’m very proud of all our volumes. Each of the stories is interesting and unique and covers some aspect of Christmas in Regency England. Here’s a quick look at this year’s content –

            Come Revel with four award-winning authors for Christmas tales filled with laughter, tears,   and love…

Her Ladyship Orders a Christmas Tree – A pagan custom leads to an unexpected attraction.

“The Play’s the Thing…” – Going off-script prompts a surprise ending.

Yuletide Treachery – Two lonely people find a traitor—and love.

A Perfectly Unexpected Christmas – An accident brings redemption and a homecoming.

The heat level varies by story, but this year, totally by accident, all the stories are PG-13. As far as riding herd on three other creative people, most of the time it is delightful… occasionally, not so much. 😊

Sherri: You and Kate Parker, one of your partners in crime helped me get started. Who helped you? Who were your mentors, support or influencers?

Hannah: This is an impossible question since there have been so many who have been helpful along the way. I was lucky to find Kate as a critique partner at HCRW many years ago. Anna Allen, one of the anthology contributors, has exchanged manuscripts with me since we met at Writers of the Future about 17 years ago. She can be quite brutal, but her comments always improve a book. Back in my SF days, I was fortunate to attend four different residential workshops that each lasted at least a week. This is where I had a lot of bad habits thrashed out of me. And the entire HCRW group has always been knowledgeable and supportive.

Sherri: You enjoy traveling, what are some of your favorite places to visit? Have you used any of these as settings for your stories?

Hannah: My husband and I promised ourselves we’d travel when he retired, and we have done so with a vengeance. We’ve been to all the continents except Antarctica. And we’re not really wanting to go there. Too cold! We’ve been to the UK quite a bit, and we’ve spent a lot of time visiting historic houses where my character will live. We’ve also returned twice to Australia and New Zealand, but so far I have no stories for those countries. Almost two years ago we visited India, where I do have pieces of some tales taking place. Our most unusual venue was Mongolia, and I have a crackerjack story idea placed there, but it will probably never exist. I have more stories in my head than I can get written.

Sherri: What are you working on now?

Hannah: I’m trying to get The Last Gift finished so it can come out in November. It would qualify as a contemporary romance except the hero is half Fey, so there is some magic involved. I’d planned on it being light holiday fare, but it is turning out to be bitter sweet and at times tugs at the heart. I’m really liking it. But I could be prejudiced. 😊 I’m hoping to get two historical romances finished for 2020, Fortune’s Promise, a standalone story set in the early Victorian period and The Color of Night which follows Tremaine from Kaleidoscope. Both of these are well on their way. I have three more stories to follow in what will be a Kaleidoscope series, and these will hopefully appear in 2021-22. I’m basically a slow writer.

Sherri: Well, I hate to say good bye, but you know what they say, leave them wanting more. Speaking of more, tell us how we can find you on social media and how can we buy your books?

Hannah: People can find most my books at whatever online source they use. For Amazon, they can go to http://tinyurl.com/q8ywr39 for all of them. I’m a social media dud, but would love to have others visit my oft-ignored Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/HannahMeredithAuthor and my website, http://www.hannahmeredith.com.   

Sherri: Say Good bye Hannah. Let’s have a glass of wine, what do you recommend?

Hannah: Bye! And I like my wine pink…

Posted in Creekside Cafe, interview

Star Gazing at the Cafe with Science Fiction Author, Joe Pranaitis

Today I’d like to introduce science fiction author and producer, Joe Pranaitis. It’s great to have you here, Joe. I believe you are my first sci-fi author. Welcome to my Creekside Café.

Joe: Hello Sherri, thank you for having me.

Sherri: My husband and sons are all Star Trek, Babylon 5 and Star Wars fans. Your parents first introduced you to science fiction? The books or the movies, what came first for you?

Joe: The films can first and it’s all thanks to one night when I was a kid and my parents took me to the drive-in to see the original Star Wars, but on the screen behind us they were showing Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Sherri: What is it about sci-fi that has kept your interest over the years?

Joe: It’s the fact that anything is possible, and those possibilities are infinite. That’s what keeps me reading, watching, and writing.

Sherri: Who are your favorite authors? Have they influenced your own writing?

Joe: My favorite authors are Diane Carey, Carissa Ann Lynch, M.D. Cooper, Carrie Vaughn. And how they’ve influenced me begins with Diane Carey, she wrote Star Trek: Final Frontier which deals with the launch of the original Enterprise under her first Captain, Robert April and it still holds up for me whenever I write about the launch of a starship for the first time. Carissa Lynch is a great friend of mine and I love her work, M.D. Cooper came about because I was looking for a military science fiction series and his fit the bill. While Carrie Vaughn, I came across her Kitty series and have dipped into her other work and have been hooked since then. And all of them in have influenced me. 

Sherri: What I find interesting about science fiction is that what may start out as fiction too often becomes real, as in the watch phones from 1960s science fiction is now a reality. What inspires your writing?

Joe: What inspires my writing is the fact that I get to explore and create the technology that I need to when the story needs it.

Sherri: Where do your ideas come from? Are you interested in technology, space, etc?

Joe: Where my ideas come from is from everything that I’ve experienced or want to experience. Yes, I am interested in technology and space exploration, for me it’s the future of humanity and it’s something that we as a species need to focus on more.

Sherri: Tell me about your books. Are they all sci-fi suspense?

How many have you written? Are they part of a series or are they stand alone?

Joe: My current published books are part of a series. I’m currently working on my 20th novel and it’s the sixth book in my Infinite Stars: Chronicles Series. While the short stories are connected to another universe that I created.

Sherri: You are producing a movie? Is this a screenplay of one of your books? Which one? Have you started marketing it or is it available for viewing?

Joe: My business partner and I have written several screenplays but no they’re not based on my books even though one of my goals is to have an animated Netflix show based on an alternate version of my Infinite Stars: Chronicles Seriesof which I have already written the series bible.

Sherri: You have been included in several anthologies, do you find shorter stories or full-length novels more difficult to write?

Joe: Yes, and I’ve created a universe that I can roam around in for anthologies. But I find both short and long fiction just as easy since I began by writing short fiction first.

Sherri: Building a world for a science fiction/space opera must be time consuming, do you plan every detail before you start writing? What is your world building process?

Joe: That it is and my original universe, that I created for my Infinite Stars: Chronicles series, bloomed over the years after I wrote the original trilogy wanting to fill in the gaps and grow the characters and the technology while I was at it.   

Sherri: Do you have any techniques or advice to new writers who wish to write sci fi?

Joe: No, I just sit down at my computer and write.

Sherri: What are you working on now?

Joe: As I’ve said before I’m working on the sixth book in my Infinite Stars: Chronicles series and it spawned an idea that will be this series’ first supplemental stories.  

Sherri: For me there is a love hate relationship with my writing. What is the most difficult thing for you about being a writer?

Joe: I love the process but the main thing that is difficult is making sure that I have the funds to get the next book produced.

Sherri: Joe, thank you for stopping by my virtual café. I wish you much success.

Links:

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3143760.Joe_Pranaitis

Amazon Joe Pranaitis

You tube Joe Pranaitis

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-pranaitis-69b22137/

Twitter Joe Pranaitis (@JoePranaitis) | Twitter

Allauthor Joe Pranaitis – Producer/Theater manager/Author – AllAuthor

AuthorsDB Joe Pranaitis

IMDB Joe Pranaitis – IMDb

Pinterest Joe Pranaitis (joepranaitis)

Website https://trekprime.wixsite.com/joepranaitis

Teespring Store https://teespring.com/stores/joes-store-31

Posted in audio books, Book Review

Crucible

Crucible by James Rollins, Narrated by Christian Baskous (Audible)

Y’all know I’m addicted to audiobooks and James Rollins books are great to listen to, they’re like an action adventure movie without the picture.

I’m not sure what I enjoy most, the Sigma Force story or the author’s notes at the end of the book. James Rollins is one of the most interesting authors of our time. I don’t want to give too much away but I will say this, what do you get when you add an ancient book from the Spanish Inquisition and modern technology with a holy religious relic and the possibilities of technology to come? What you get is James Rollins Crucible.

Celebrating their first Christmas as a couple and expecting their first child, Commander Gray Pierce returns with his partner Monk to find the woman he loves missing along with Monk’s daughters, and Monk’s wife, Kat near death on the kitchen floor.

At least two separate factions are trying to get their hands on the new technology recently demonstrated in Portugal. Technology someone was willing to kill for. Before going offline, a distress signal was sent to Sigma.

After saying goodbye to his wife, Monk promises to rescue their daughters. He joins Gray to find out if the murders in Portugal are connected to the attack on Commander Pierce’s house.

A manuscript from the Spanish Inquisition, Malleus Maleficarium, the Hammer of Witches, two religious orders on opposite ends of the faith, a snow witch rebuilding the unit she inherited, and the promise of advanced technology the world isn’t ready for yet.

This is another edge of your seat thriller as Christmas in Paris takes on new meaning. Gray and Monk must work against the clock to save the ones they love and face the very real facts that for some, it may already be too late.

This isn’t just another Christmas story, but it is one I’d love to see made into a movie. Awesome book, fantastic characters, James Rollins rocks.