Silvia Foti: Interview

Interview: Silvia Foti

Silvia Foti, is a freelancer and mystery novelist. Her first mystery novel, Skullduggery, became available as an e-book with Echelon Press in 2006. Her second mystery novel, The Diva's Fool, will be published by Echelon Press in 2007. She serves as president of Love Is Murder, an annual multi-genre conference for writers and readers held in Chicago. In the anti-competitive ladder of volunteer writing organizations, she was also voted president of Sisters in Crime in Chicago, a local group of mystery writers for the year 2006.

MC: Welcome, Silvia. You had a very interesting and diverse childhood, growing up as the child of Lithuanian political exiles. How has this experience shaped your writing?

SF: It had a profound influence, I always felt as an "other" as a child, living in two worlds, Lithuanian and American. My mind was always on Lithuania, as my parents thought they'd return some day. They never did, even when the country became free, but that longing for it still remains. I turned to books a lot and still do, and an avid reader probably thinks about writing some day. My protagonist is Lithuanian, so I bring much of myself into her.

MC: You have very broad experience in writing manuals on compliance for health journals, designing brochures, freelancing in Argentina for two newspapers and the Polo Magazine. When did your interest turn to mystery stories?

SF: I've always been reading mysteries, even as a child. I loved the suspense and thrill, the spying around. Growing up Lithuanian, my generation felt called to save the country, and in some small way, I always felt like a child-spy in America, looking for ways to free Lithuania from here. It's silly, but at the time I believed it.

MC: How does your business experience and your company, Lotus Ink help in promoting your own fiction writing career?

SF: I have the discipline to accomplish tasks I set out for myself. If something doesn't work as anticipated, I just try something else, and keep doing so without getting bogged down too much.

MC: Skullduggery and the upcoming Diva's Fool are set in Chicago. Are any of your characters or scenarios based on true life?

SF: The protagonist is a journalist on the Southwest Side of Chicago and is Lithuanian. This much is based on my own true life. The rest is imagined, particularly her skill with Tarot cards. For her, they really work.

MC: What is next? Another Chicago mystery?

SF: This is a series of twenty-two, based on the twenty-two Greater Secrets cards. The next will be based on The Magician card. This one begins in Bergamo, Italy, and ends in New York City.

MC: Can you share something funny about yourself for your readers and fans?

SF: I had a huge fear of public speaking. On a whim I answered an ad to teach public speaking at St. Xavier, my alma mater, believing that if God wanted me to improve as a public speaker, I'd get the job. I always put God in the picture with these sorts of things. To my shock, three days before classes began, I received a call to teach the class. The one they really wanted had gotten a better job, and a former professor of mine recommended me. They were desperate. The first day I was so nervous standing in front of the students speaking publicly about improving their own speech. After that experience, I knew I could do anything.

Thanks, so much, Silvia. Your personal story is as fascinating as your mystery books.

The Diva's Fool is available for purchase through Amazon.com. Skullduggery is available for purchase through Amazon or the publisher, Echelon

Read more about Silvia Foti on her website.

Interview: J. R. Turner

My guest is J.R. Turner, action-adventure, sci-fi, and, soon-to-be young adult author.

Hi Jenny,

MC: You mention in your bio that you were raised by an "eclectic assortment of musicians and artists" that helped shape your imagination and creativity. How have you used your childhood experiences in your writing?

JRT: In My Biker Bodyguard those experiences were more directly represented. The house I detail is actually based on the Victorian home my grandmother has owned my whole life. I spent many summers there and even lived there for a time.

Overall though, my childhood exposed me to all sorts of very interesting people that allowed me to get a wider scope of the world than many of my childhood friends, I believe. There are a lot of misconceptions about people from “the wrong side of the tracks” –even among those who live there. If anything, those experiences created in me a thirst for the unusual, the different, and piqued my curiosity to the point it can be a distraction, especially when surfing the internet for research purposes.

If you can imagine peeking down a long hallway and seeing a sparkling rainbow at the far end, I think that’s what my childhood did for me. It opened me up to the endless possibility of new discoveries.

MC: You write a series of books featuring Sara Stark. Sara is quite a character. How much of her is in Jenny Turner?

JRT: I would say that all my characters resemble me in some way, but Sara Stark is more of what I wish I could be: strong, noble, honorable, and insightful—not just to what makes her tick, but to what makes her enemies tick. It’s a joy to write her because I get to do all those things I wish I had, or could, through her. When I face confrontation I generally get very flustered and confused. I’m always surprised by bad behavior in others, whereas Sara keeps her cool and is able to get to the heart of the matter directly—well, sometimes. She has a weakness for Drake and at times, for Bruce (her adoptive father) as well.

MC: You write action/adventure, romance, and in Racing the Moon, you write about geneticist, Amanda McCourt who's in a race to find a cure for a werewolf virus. Quite a variety! Do you have a favorite genre, and if so, tell us why.

JRT: No, I don’t think I have a “favorite” genre—I do have a favorite type of story though, and that falls into many genres. Basically, I love the physicality of good vs. evil and true love. Those two elements, combined with good storytelling, get me every time. While I have enjoyed more ‘laid back’ styles, I tend to get bored quickly when characters spend too much of their time thinking instead of taking action. I like the immediacy of disasters and imminent threats, as well as the suspense of physical and emotional attraction between characters who are falling in love.


MC: What is the most important element you can give writers on crafting an action scene?

JRT: Use the surroundings. I think too often writer’s get focused on the physical execution of hand-to-hand or mortal combat. Whether it’s a car chase or a character kicking-butt, the setting is often neglected. As an example: you can raise the stakes in a car chase if you have a construction zone, a narrow bridge, one-way traffic, etc. Or, in the case of the characters battling each other—you can place them in a shopping mall, use an escalator, innocent bystanders, a food court with metal chairs and tables, or a sporting good store with baseball bats.

Up the ante on the scene and make it original by using the location or setting as a ‘character’ in of itself.

MC: Can you give us a preview of your next book or series?

JRT: I’m preparing to work on a Young Adult series. At the moment I’m vacillating between two different premises:
The Lockwood Legacies—which would be about five daughters who have special powers that ‘activate’ when they hit puberty, their gardening, guru momma, and an archeologist papa that has a penchant for bringing cursed items home for his girls.

I haven’t gotten a working title for the second premise yet, but it involves the natural destruction of life as we know it when a series of earthquakes launch global disasters that destroy all but a handful of humanity. The loss of so many lives all at once creates a paranormal ‘field’ of sorts that imparts special powers to the survivors who are young enough yet to inherit them. However, those powers are used for good or evil depending on the recipients, creating two factions who fight to gain control of the world.

MC: Wow! They sound fascinating! I can't wait to read one or both. And, finally…can you tell your readers and fans something funny about you that they may not know?

JRT: When I had my first child, my reaction was surprise and utter shock. The first thing I said? “Oh my gosh! It really is a baby!”

Thanks, Jenny. We'll look forward to hearing much more from J.R. Turner in the future.

J. R. Turner's website:
Fictionwise:

Mary Cunningham
Discover the Magic

Interview With The Dragon

Yvonne Eve Walus is a novelist, wife, mother, educator, and project manager, living in New Zealand. Her fascinating story, Interview With the Dragon, published by Echelon ,is now available on Fictionwise

Read an excerpt:

Dragons. The word has always evoked dread in humankind.

Persecuted by adventurers and would-be heroes, we-dragons-were eventually declared extinct. And man rejoiced the death of yet another of Earth's predators. Gigantic reptiles. Fire breathing. Bloodthirsty.

That's one of the reasons why I'm granting this interview. An exclusive tale, straight from the country's top security prison for women.

I need to set the record straight. We are not gigantic and certainly not reptiles. We are not the bloodthirsty ones. As to the fire breathing-but I'm getting ahead of myself.

In the twentieth century, dragons were part fantasy, part legend, but mostly forgotten. I guess it was because man finally began to feel guilty: about the dodo, about the African mountain lion, about the rainforests. And about slaying the dragons. It's one thing to paint St George smiting something that spouts fire, it's quite another to see species after species hunted into oblivion.

So that's the past. And today? Today, the fate of the entire planet is up to me.

The wake-up call sounds and my thoughts return to the present. The interview. My heart beats faster as I pull the black scarf off my eyes and let my pupils adjust to the artificial light that glares at me twenty-four hours a day. I stretch carefully, one limb after another, fold and unfold my wings ten times, then begin the sit-ups. I hate exercising as much as the next girl. Being pregnant, however, leaves me no option but to stay fit.

You may also visit her blog, A novelist speaks on books, the universe, and everything, or her website.

Grace E. Howell Interview

Grace E. Howell: Interview


Grace E. Howell has been writing most of her life, winning several awards for writing in elementary school. She has been a classroom teacher in grades 1- 8, a school librarian, and an editor for a national periodical. Her writing has appeared in anthologies and magazines for children and adults. True Friends, her first novel, was published by Echelon Press in 2005. A Master Gardener for 10 years, she has landscaped new Habitat for Humanity houses. She loves going to the theater and has written and directed plays for children and adults. Grace and her husband Frank live in Memphis, Tennessee. They have four children and three grandchildren.

My guest today is Grace E. Howell, author of True Friends, a middle-grade novel about tomboy Annie Davis struggling to become a "proper girl" in the midst of a war while learning the meaning of true friendship and trust.

MARY: Welcome, Grace. True Friends is set during World War I. Is it based on a true story or characters you've known in your life?

GRACE: Actually True Friends is a conglomerate of tidbits I heard from people who lived through World War I and the 1918 flu pulled together and seasoned by my imagination. The Bolman family in the story is based on the family of my grandfather and grandmother. My mother would have been Rose.

MARY: How does the main character, Annie Lou Davis, resemble the author?

GRACE: I may have been a bit of a tomboy as Annie was. My summers were spent at the park playing softball and other sports. Yet, as Annie wants to be one of the girls, so do I. Both of us are independent thinkers with strong family loyalties. I've never before thought how much of myself I put into Annie. She is very much like me.

MARY: I noticed that you are a former teacher and librarian. Have these experiences helped in your research and writing? Is so, how?

GRACE: Being in the classroom and the library at school allowed me to see interactions among the students and to get to know each one of them as individuals. I think actually being with the people you write for gives an insight into their characters and personalities that helps develop fictional characters for a story.

MARY: Will we be seeing another story about Annie Lou?

GRACE: I love Annie and her irrepressible spirit, but I have no plans at the present to continue her story. I am working on a novel about Mrs. Bolman in True Friends. Remember she was partially blind and went to the blind school when she was a girl. That's the story I want to tell, the one about Harriette, a blind girl in the late 1800s. So much was happening at that time with women's suffrage and all.

MARY: Is there someone special, a mentor or author, who influenced your writing?

GRACE: I can't think of any one or two people who influenced my writing. There were many—teachers at all levels from elementary through college were always encouraging me to write. I guess my cousin Kathy and my daughter Joyce with their confidence in me and my writing have had the greatest effect because I respect and trust their opinions. I owe a lot to Karen Syed and Echelon Press for publishing True Friends. All the dear people, adults and children who keep telling me how much they love True Friends, are the ones who keep me going.

MARY: Finally, is there anything funny you can share about yourself that your readers and fans might not know?

GRACE: I don't know if this is funny, but I am sort of a daredevil. A few years ago I was with a tour group, who thought I was a quiet little school teacher. At the top of Mount Pilatus in Switzerland four or five feet down that very steep slope, I saw a rock I wanted. Thinking nothing of it, I got my husband to hold my feet while I stretched myself flat down the mountain reaching for the rock and sending that poor tour group into shock at the sight. I still have the rock.

Thank you, Mary. I've enjoyed being here and chatting with you.


True Friends is available through Amazon, Fictionwise E-books, through Follett Distribution, all independent bookstores and her publisher, Quake.

Grace E. Howell

I'll Be Bloggin'

This weekend! Visit The Church Lady

Chris, aka Church Lady, will be hosting an Author's Weekend starting tomorrow and running through Sunday, August 5. Authors Mary Cunningham and Elaine Alexander will be guest blogging. They will be giving away copies of their books as well as their successful query letters to contest winners. Please check it out!


Many Thanks, and hope to see you around over the weekend. And don't worry, the contests are silly, not seriously literary!!

Stop by and see me! No question is too silly! Ask a question about the upcoming "Curse of the Bayou," book three in the "Cynthia's Attic" series!

Mary

Spiderwick Chronicles

The Seeing Stone (Spiderwick Chronicles)


Don't hold me back, I'm on a roll! Last night I finished Book Two. Spiderwick Chronicles: The Seeing Stone. I thoroughly enjoyed "The Field Guide" as it was a nice place to start, but book two really got the old adrenaline pumping. Getting better acquainted with the Grace Children, and getting nose to toes with the goblins was quite an adventure. I'm not quite sure what to think of Hogsqueal, but I don't think we've seen the last of him.

After finishing books one and two I've still got two thumbs up and am holding back hitting book three as I need to pace myself. And don't think that because I am a grownup that I don't appreciate the important things in life. After finishing "The Seeing Stone" I immediately went online to hit the Spiderwick site. I am now a proud member of the International Sprite League. Some things are just too important to ignore!

Harry who?

Spiderwick Chronicles: The Seeing Stone
ISBN: 0689859376
Authors: Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black,


Originally posted by Echelon Press