Interview: M. Yero Morris

What have you had published? 

This is my first attempt of publishing a book

What genre(s) of book do you write? 

Non-fiction

What inspired you to write your first book? 

My life

How long did it take you to write “Odyssey through HELL Exit, Push here: X”? 

2 days, and 6 weeks of editing

What is the working title of your next book(s)? 

Still working on that, It will be likely another eclectic mix of business and life as life is in reality, with a strong focus on innovation  as it has become my specialty. I do need my day job to feed up the research for the next project

When and why did you begin writing?

The book, Odyssey through Hell explains it.  Actually I had a couple of previous attempts; the largest was wiped out by a computer virus 20 years ago that died with the virus. I guess I have my mother’s genes, though that old one would’ve been in the erotic section...Sorry, virus got to my brain’s hard drive.

Do you self publish your books or go through an agency? 

Self, still only on Kindle version and working on any opportunity that may pop up. So I’d really appreciate any expert’s help. Though it’s been difficult but fun doing all by myself because it has given me a strong sense of accomplishment

What part of writing books do you find the hardest? 

Starting, and then the editing

What do you do in your spare time? 

I have a ton of hobbies including my boys

Who is your favourite author? 

I have so many. Conan Doyle, Alan Weiss, Woody Allen, Cousteau, DragonLance saga... I've read maybe around and upwards of 1000 books. So, yup, no trends. I do drive Amazon suggestions bonkers

What’s your favourite genre to read? 

Almost all except cheesy stuff. Mainly Fantasy, mystery, humour, hard science... Lately I’ve read mostly business to learn and apply

Do you have any advice for other writers? 

Type away, and get rid of any and all fears. They are worthless. What’s the worst that can happen? Exactly, nothing.

Is there anything else you’d like to add? 

The book is about my quest of finding the pot of gold, and instead I found something else much more valuable. Hope you do enjoy, and please do leave a review on Amazon! and you can reach me in Twitter @myeromorris

Updates since the book: 

Well, I’ve been getting myself involved in a few projects, mostly in business modelling into ecological solutions, but so wide range that I’ll drive any close minds just berserk, just like Amazon’s suggestions. Still broke, but I’m having so much fun and with awesome projections, so I’m not worried.

Interview: Imran Siddiq

What have you had published?
My debut novel, Disconnect, was released January 2013. i haven't had anything published before.

What genre(s) of book do you write?
Young Adult Science Fiction.

     I do have plans to cross my preferred genre with Horror, Thriller and Techno-Fantasy.

What inspired you to write your first book?

Whilst attending the Festival of Writing in York (UK) in 2011,  I overheard a literary agent mention that there wasn't enough romance in YA Science Fiction. Within minutes the ending to the first book played out in my head and I knew that I had a novel to be written.

How long did it take you to write “Disconnect: The Divided Worlds Trilogy #1”?

The first draft took me three months. It was written in 3rd Person with alternating viewpoints between the make and female protagonist. After some soul-searching, I decided to restrict the novel to the male 3rd Person Limited approach. The redraft took 2 months, and the eventual edits another month. All in all, Disconnect has been a total of 6 months.

What is the working title of your next book(s)?

Disassemble: The Divided Worlds Trilogy #2 - due June 2013

Disrupt: The Divided Worlds Trilogy #3 - due June 2013

Tyler Nitbone and the Snowflake Traitor - due November 2013

The Last Strider - due March 2014

Djinnxed - due June 2014

When and why did you begin writing?

Sitting in a jungle in Borneo, amongst the chattering insects and the sound of something large flapping their wings overhead, I realised that at the age of 29, I was missing something that made my life complete as a child; writing. 5 years on, and I don't feel empty anymore.

Do you self publish your books or go through an agency?

I am known for attending the UK Festival circuit and am recognised by many agents - which is always  good thing. I've had good feedback and promising comments from agents, but haven't delivered enough to get their backing (yet). I will still pursue the traditional route, but decided to get my work out there, and that's why I have self-published Disconnect.

What part of writing books do you find the hardest?

Making sense of what's in my head. I can see it, but sometimes getting detail down can be difficult. I now adopt an approach of Think Less-Write More, whereby I just write, write, write, and then sort out the nagging details later.

What do you do in your spare time?

Spare time? I work full-time, so any spare time I do have is taken up by writing, blogging, tweeting, etc. I do like to read and experiment with digital art. And now again, when the mood is right, I like to garden.

Who is your favourite author?

Terry Pratchett for the world he has given me, and the wit he isn't afraid of delivering.

What’s your favourite genre to read?

YA Science Fiction and Fantasy

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Don't be afraid to ask for advice. We don't know it all, no matter how brilliant we were in English class as children. Join a Writers' Group, gain knowledge from those going through the process, seek out new ways to think about your work. Places like Twitter are amazing for realising that you aren't the only one with writer's block.

     And most of all - when others doubt you, criticise the time you have to write, or try to put you down - don't give in.

     Find the strength within to make the leap.

Some still doubt me - but when I receive a good review and a comment from a stranger thanking me for my work - it makes me smile. It makes me realise that it was all worth it.

     Write.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Since the digital boom of e-books the market has become flooded, and with the ease of creating feigned reviews it can be a minefield to locate a worthy read. I hope readers give me a chance and I am always welcome to view of how I can improve or adapt. Cutting corners to release a novel is the bad way to do things - I never will do that. And if anyone out there is considering self-publishing, I don't mind offering guidance or support to help them make that leap.

     Having your name on the front of a good cover is like plucking a dream from your head and living it.

Disconnect: The Divided Worlds Trilogy #1

Dirtying fingernails in sewers is fast approaching worthlessness for Zachary, a 16-year old Underworld scavenger. When footage of an Overworld girl, Rosa, is discovered, his intrigue heightens at why she expresses sadness with a lavish lifestyle. In meeting Rosa, Zachary is scorned by her opinion of the deprived. She pities him and provides a means for them to communicate. With time, friendship and something that he’s never felt grows; love for another human. Knowing Rosa calls him when it suits her isn’t enough; he wants to meet her, but how? Relationships in Underworld are few, let alone the impossibility with those above the ceiling. Underworld will suffer when plans to conquer Jupiter’s moon, Europa move ahead. Worse is Rosa’s father, a disgraced Overworld ambassador, approving the plan. Zachary must defeat the prejudice of the worlds, sneak within opposing forces, lose friends and challenge Rosa’s sadness. In doing so, a twisted secret is uncovered that may devour the reason he lives; Rosa. In space, love has boundaries.

Goodreads     Amazon US

About the Author:
Imran Siddiq may have tried to leave Leicester a few times, but it's become his place to wake up to, freeze when the heating is off, and serve two cats and, most of all, get down to writing.
He sacrifices every second that he can to writing. A veteran of writing festivals, a constant presence on Twitter, and one who is still able to gobble up all forms of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, Imran hopes he can bring a smile to others through his stories
Imran’s preferred genre is YA Sci Fi. He has a tendency to throw a droid into every novel –literally every novel. 

http://www.imranwrites.com
http://www.facebook.com/imransiddiqwriter
http://www.twitter.com/flickimp

Review: "Desperate Bid" by Stephanie Cage

“Desperate Bid” contains everything that I think a good romance book needs. It is well written, has a good storyline that keeps you hooked from beginning to end and has characters that you can connect to.

When I read the description of this book I was intrigued. Alex sells his life on an internet auction site to Sarah, a business woman. This story tells the tale of Sarah and Alex and all that they have to overcome, together and alone. After meeting under such strange circumstances is it possible that they can fight all that battles against them to find their own happiness?

Stephanie Cage’s talent has no end. I highly recommend this book.

(4.5/5 Stars)

Review: "Perfect Partners" by Stephanie Cage

“Perfect Partners” is the book equivalent of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ with some romance on the side. A sweet read which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Stephanie Cage has a talent that shows throughout this book. Her writing flows nicely and there are minimal errors which makes this an easy and enjoyable read. She has created characters which you grow to love and can easily relate to and a story line which keeps you entertained from beginning to end.

“Perfect Partners” tells the story of Lisa and Redmond, two dancers, who are competing in a dancing competition, “Couples,” in hope of winning the competition and saving Mark and Elaine’s dance studio. Join Lisa and Redmond in their journey to fame or disaster and experience the ups and downs of their life in the dancing world. A couple who seem to be ideally suited but will it work out in the end? And can they win the competition and save the dance studio?

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good romance story (you don’t have to be a huge fan of dancing to enjoy this book).

(4/5 Stars)

Interview: Stephanie Cage

What have you had published?

‘Perfect Partners’ is my first full-length novel, and I have one novella, ‘Desperate Bid’, published with The Wild Rose Press.  Before that I mostly wrote short stories and poetry.  I’ve won story competitions in two magazines –Woman’s Own and Yorkshire Ridings Magazine – and both winning stories were published.  I’ve also written some business reports and articles, but they’re not quite so interesting! 

What genre(s) of book do you write?

I’ve dabbled in all kinds of things, and I’m still quite experimental with my short stories, which include science fiction, fantasy and horror, but the focus of my longer fiction is always contemporary romance. 

What inspired you to write your first book?

I wrote ‘Desperate Bid’ because I was curious to imagine what it would be like to hand over control of your life to another person.  At the start of the story Alex is fed up and somewhat tipsy and he and his flatmate decide to put his life up for sale on an online auction site.   Then, when Sarah places the winning bid on him, he has to live with the consequences.  And, of course, Alex and Sarah turn out to be very attracted to each other, but things are a little awkward because of the power dynamics between them.  That’s the area I particularly wanted to explore in the story, although I also loved writing the song lyrics (Alex is a musician and Sarah a music lover – just one of the ways they’re great for each other). 

How long did it take you to write “Perfect Partners”?

Forever!  I started it back when Strictly Come Dancing was quite a new thing and nobody was sure whether the public’s fascination with ballroom dancing would be a flash in the pan.  The first draft was very rough and mostly focussed on Redmond and Lisa and their relationship.  I put the manuscript away for quite a few years, then took it out and submitted it to the RNA New Writers’ Scheme.  The feedback I got helped me not just to polish the story, but to rewrite it completely, with much more drama surrounding Lisa and Red’s experiences in the competition.  That was the version accepted by Crimson Romance. 

What is the working title of your next book(s)?

I tend to have a lot of projects on the go.  The working title of the sequel to ‘Perfect Partners’ is ‘A Step in the Right Direction’ and I’ve written about 30,000 words of that. I’m also editing a short Christmas romance with the working title of ‘The Santa Next Door’, and in last year’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) I completed the first draft of a sequel to ‘Desperate Bid’ called ‘Desperate Measures’, but I haven’t started editing it yet. 

When and why did you begin writing?

I can’t ever remember a time when I didn’t write.  I’ve always loved fiction and when I was very young I used to invent Enid Blyton-esque adventures involving me and my friends, so it was a natural progression from that storytelling to putting my stories on paper. 

Do you self publish your books or go through an agency?

I don’t have an agent but I do go through publishers rather than self-publishing.  I know you lose some control that way, but I like having the support of professional editors, cover designers, etc, and I’ve been lucky that my two publishers – The Wild Rose Press and Crimson Romance – are both very supportive and easy to work with. 

What part of writing books do you find the hardest?

Finding time for it!  It’s so easy to put off until another day, but if I put it off for too long I get very grumpy, so I’m trying to be more disciplined about fitting writing in regularly around my day job.  

What do you do in your spare time?

I read a lot and I enjoy watching films and going to the theatre, especially to see musicals.  I’ve been in amateur productions of Anything Goes and Sweet Charity, and I’d love to do more performing.  I enjoy swimming and ice skating and have recently taken up Zumba (as recommended by Darcey Bussell). 

Who is your favourite author?

I never know how to answer that question because there are so many books I love in different genres.  Possibly Louise Bagshawe because I always come back to her books when I need a pick-me-up.  I especially love ‘The Movie’ because it’s so glamorous and exciting.  

What’s your favourite genre to read?

I probably read more romance than anything else at the moment, but I also enjoy fantasy, science fiction and crime.  I’d get bored if I had to stick to one genre! 

Do you have any advice for other writers?

The main thing I always advise writers to do is read – but not just to race through books to find out what happens at the end.  It can be hard when you’re enjoying a story to stop and ask yourself how the author is drawing you in, why their characters are so convincing and what you like about the settings and writing style, but you can learn so much from that sort of thoughtful reading. It’s well worth taking the time, even if you have to go back through the book a second time to do the analysis. 

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Just to say thanks for inviting me to be interviewed.  I’ve enjoyed it - the questions really made me think!  

Question and Answer with Sarah-Ann Smith

Q - Your career has been on a high professional level in diplomacy. What led you to decide to write a novel, and particularly a novel about wartime Vietnam?

A - My Foreign Service assignment during the last two years of the war was in the Indochina section of the State Department. In that position I was deeply aware of the way the war, and its ending, tore apart people’s lives, both American and Vietnamese. And there were many refugees, or émigrés really, in and around Washington, and I got intrigued by what their lives must be like here, after starting over. I started thinking, they would make an interesting story.

Q - Had you been to Vietnam when you started the book?

A - No, but as soon as travel bans imposed by our government were lifted, around 1988, about thirteen years after the war  ended, I did go to Ho Chi Minh city and environs, wandering the streets, keeping a journal and describing places that I thought would be where scenes in the novel might have taken place.

Q - How did you manage to connect places in wartime Saigon with what was there a decade and more later?

A - Actually, it wasn’t as hard as one might think. Vietnam at that time had not begun to develop economically, so there hadn’t been much physical change, modernizing and so forth. Saigon was like a ghost city full of people, the remnants of American service stations with the American signs, rusted but still hanging; American-style signal lights at the intersections, most of which were no longer working. The highest buildings on the skyline were American-built, so that the place looked much like a mid-1960s Midwestern city, with the older French buildings and small Asian storefronts mixed in.

Q - How long did it take you to write the novel?

A - I wrote it in fits and starts, beginning back in the mid-1980s. Other things, such as family illness, kept getting in the way. When I finally did have something I thought was worth sending to agents, the response was very discouraging, and I would periodically get stymied. But gradually it took shape, and the final version – before the copy-editing and publishing process took place – was done about four years ago.

Q - Do you speak Vietnamese?

A - No. I did try to learn such things as names people give their children, forms of address –Miss, Mr., etc. And I do speak Chinese, so Asian-language tonalities and speech patterns weren’t completely unfamiliar to me.

Q - How did you go about writing the novel? Did you do a great deal of research?

A - I had some background to start with, from my academic studies, which focused on East and Southeast Asia, and from my Foreign Service experience, though I never actually served in Vietnam. When I began working on the book, I started with the story, then tried to be sure it was as historically and culturally accurate as I could make it. That isn’t the way all authors work, it’s just my way. Some writers do it the other way around, doing lots of research, then writing the book.

Q - Did you particularly identify with one or more of the characters, Trang Sen, for instance? Are there others that you dislike?

A - To a certain extent, particularly as the characters were being developed, I identified with each of them. I don’t think I could create a character that I disliked from the word go. Once the book was in editing stage, I liked some better than others – I’m not going to say which ones.

Q - How would you describe the focus of the book?

A - I originally intended it as a coming-of-age story about a young woman with conflicting desires and ambitions. And it is a coming-of-age novel, but I’ve been surprised that readers see it as a way of understanding certain things about the Vietnam war that they never understood before. So I’ve come to see that it really is both, and perhaps other things as well.

Q - How accurate is your description of the issues faced by Vietnamese immigrants when they arrived in the U.S.

A - In my own personal experience, which is reflected in more objective studies, it was terribly difficult for many of them. Refugees who were highly trained professionals found themselves in menial jobs as the only way to make a living – that’s very humiliating for an educated person. Some committed suicide. Teen-agers were also adrift, and some went terribly astray.

Q - Did you know any couples like the one you describe?

A - Working in the State Department – and because of the personal stories that went around at the end of the war – I was aware that there were many relationships, and many kinds of relationships, between American men and Vietnamese women. Some of them were quite good and ended in marriage, but many were little better than the kind of liaison between a G.I. and what I refer to in the book as Tea Girls.

Q - Will there be a sequel?

A - A lot of people have asked me that. I think everyone who reads the book ends up wondering what will happen to Trang Sen in her new life. But given that this book took so long to write, I don’t know that I’d want to undertake that commitment right now.

Interview: Sarah-Ann Smith

What have you had published?

Trang Sen is the first novel I’ve had published. I’ve published a number of op ed pieces, and for two years was a columnist for a paper in North Carolina; I also have some unpublished short stories.

What genre(s) of book do you write?

I’m hesitant to consider my work as any particular genre. As I noted in the Q and A, I intended Trang Sen as a coming-of-age novel. It is that, but readers have also found it a way to understand some things about the Vietnam War. So I think it can be different things to different readers. In terms of writing style, it is traditional literary fiction – what used to be called “trade fiction”.

What inspired you to write your first book?

My Foreign Service assignment during the last two years of the war was in the Indochina section of the State Department. In that position I was deeply aware of the way the war, and its ending, tore apart people’s lives, both American and Vietnamese. And there were many refugees, or émigrés really, in and around Washington, and I got intrigued by what their lives must be like here, after starting over. I started thinking, they would make an interesting story.

How long did it take you to write “Trang Sen”?

I wrote it over a number of years. It took me a long time because life kept intervening, such events as the final illness and death of my parents, and other projects to which I was committed. The final version was completed about four years ago.

What is the working title of your next book(s)?

My next book will be a memoir, but not the straightforward type, more image- or memory-directed reflections on some of the more significant parts of my life. I don’t have a working title yet.

When and why did you begin writing?

About the same time I learned to read, because I love it. I have a pencil-written account, on a small notepad, of a trip my family took to New York City when I was 8 years old. As a child, I wrote plays for my brother and me to perform, and some truly dreadful fiction.

Do you self publish your books or go through an agency?

Neither, actually. I worked directly with Pisgah Press in the publication of Trang Sen. Pisgah will almost certainly be my publisher going forward.

What part of writing books do you find the hardest?

That is really hard to say. I love all parts of the process: The creation of characters and situations; the research necessary to ensure accuracy; editing and proofing.

What do you do in your spare time?

Cooking and entertaining, especially Chinese cooking; attending figure skating  championships; movies; trying to keep up with my very energetic Pembroke corgi.

Who is your favourite author?

Wow, that is hard to say. Given how much space she takes up on my bookshelf, I’d have to conclude it is Ursula K. LeGuin.

What’s your favourite genre to read?

I love really good fantasy and science fiction, continually enjoy the Harry Potter books, and also the novels of Guy Gavriel Kay.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Just to keep at it and don’t get discouraged. I’m leery of the advice to “write what you know”. Maybe “write what you dream and imagine” is better advice.