Robbie Cheadle started the “Growing Bookworms” blog series back in 2019. It was the first series that she brought to Writing to be Read, and is the longest running blog series to date on Writing to be Read. It has been a wonderful series, which originated with her Sir Chocolate series characters, and all the creative ways in which she encouraged her own sons to read and enjoy the world of literature. It has now grown into a discussion of children’s books and literature as the series progresses. Now, after six years, Robbie’s bookworms are grown and she is ready to move on with a new series, which I’ll tell you a little about below. But first, let’s celebrate the series by spotlighting all the fabulous banners Robbie has created for the “Growing Bookworms” series over the years with her darling fondant art as we bid “Growing Bookworms” farewell.
Growing Bookworms
(The fondant village is the latest banner. Click to the right for a trip back through time to the first banner with Sir Chocolate and Silly Willy back in 2019.)
Welcome “Robbie Reads and Cooks”
In her new blog series, “Read and Cook”, Robbie plans to share posts containing a book review paired with a recipe. I hope you will join us in welcoming this new and creative blog series for Robbie. I think it will be interesting to see what Robbie’s literary tastes cook up.
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October Release: Midnight Garden
17 authors bring you 21 magnificent dark tales. Stories of magic, monsters and mayhem. Tales of murder and madness which will make your skin crawl. These are the tales that explore your darkest fears. Read them in the Midnight Garden… if you dare.
Contributing authors include Paul Kane, Ell Rodman, DL Mullan, Joseph Carrabis, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, Denise Aparo, Jon Shannon, Zack Elafy, Paul Martz, Robb T. White, Abe Margel, Julie Jones, Molly Ertel, Peter McKay, Kaye Lynne Booth, Danaeka Scrimshaw, and M.J. Mallon, author of the winning story in the 2024 WordCrafter Dark Fiction Contest.
Scheduled for release on October 8th. Don’t miss the WordCrafter Midnight Garden Book Blog Tour October 7 – 14, with guest posts and audio/video readings by contributing authors, and a great giveaway. So be sure to join us in sending this dark fiction anthology off right.
Tales From the Hanging Tree News
There exists a tree that is timeless, spanning across all dimensions, which absorbs every life as those who are hanged as they die… and it remembers every one. The stories within are a select few of the Tales From the Hanging Tree.
September saw the release of Tales From the Hanging Tree: Imprints of Tragedy. We launched it with a great blog tour featuring guest posts or excerpt readings from contributing authors. If you missed it, you can access each stop through the links in the tour schedule below. You can get your copy at your favorite retailer through Books2Read: https://books2read.com/Hanging-Tree
Tour Schedule
Monday Sept. 9 –Writing to be Read– Reading Excerpt by Joseph Carrabis & Guest Sylva Fae
Friday Sept. 13 – Writing to be Read– Reading Excerpt by DL Mullan & Guest Matt Usher
We also had a cool giveaway during the tour. The winners received a free digital copy of Tales From the Hanging Tree: Imprints of Tragedy.
And the winners are…
T.W. Dittmer
Merril D. Smith
C.E. Robinson
We also had promotional posts appear on the Joseph Carrabis blog site, so if you’d like to learn more about the anthology, click on the links below to see those posts.
My guest this month on “Chatting with New Blood” is author Patty L. Fletcher. Her debut novel was Sides of the Order, Book 1 of The Blended Lives Chronicles, which I reviewed back in June of 2024. (You can read my reveiw here.) While I’m writing this, she is busy doing the final edit and proof read on Book 2 of the series, A Battle of Choices. Yep. Patty is in this author thing for the long haul, and she’s got the whole series thing going in full swing. In addition, she is an advocate for those who are visually impaired, like herself and she is active in several organizations which promote inclusion and accessability. Her short fiction has been included in both the Visions and Midnight Roost anthologies from WordCrafter Press, and her poetry was included in Poetry Treasures 3: Passions. She often volunteers as a host for WordCrafter Book Blog Tours, as well, and is always willing to share around WordCrafter and Writing to be Read promotions on her social media channels. She’s here with us today to share some insights into the world of the blind and visually impaired, as well as letting you know about her debut novel.
About Patty Fletcher
Patty L. Fletcher lives in Kingsport Tennessee where she works full time as a Writer with the goal of bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled. She is Also a Social Media Marketing Assistant.
Kaye: I love that your bio gives details about yourself as a person first. You don’t even mention that you are a published author until near the end. So many author bios, including mine, talk about being an author first and throw in the “oh yeah, and I’m a real person with other interests” almost as an afterthought.
Patty: Hello, Kaye and all.
Thanks for having me today.
When I was considering what to put into my media kit, which is where the bio you reference comes from, I gave some thought to what people ask me when we talk about my work. Most of the time, when an interviewer begins asking questions, they talk about who the author is as a person.
When bloggers blog, they also talk about their personal side and people seem to love it. So, to me it only made sense to start that way.
I learn by watching others, doing what they do, then once I’ve a grasp of it all, I add in my own style.
Monkey see monkey do then add in a little of you, is a great thing to remember when entering the writing world.
Kaye: I think this shows a lot about how we define ourselves. I define myself, first and foremost, as an author because writing infiltrates every part of my life. I love to go sit in the forest, watch the birds, smell the flowers, listen to the river flow, and write poetry about them. People I know and relationships I’ve had find their way into my stories. It all come back to the writing. You, on the other hand, define yourself first and foremost by your blindness, which also effects every other part of your life, so it comes first in your bio. So, let’s talk about that aspect of your life.
Kaye: You’ve lived with blindness all your life. What do you feel is the most common misconception about blindness that people hold?
Patty: People tend to say things such as, “Oh, you’re amazing.” Over the slightest things. I have been told it is amazing that I can feed and care for myself, ridiculous things such as the reason I don’t like watching TV is because I cannot see it. That cannot fly, because we have audio description to tell us what’s happening on the screen and even before that was a thing, we blind folk liked TV as much as the next person.
Nope, the reason I don’t watch TV is because that’s chewing gum for the brain. My brain wants substance. Real meat the brain can sink its teeth into. To me, that’s not coming from a TV show about a deputy with a bullet in his pocket.
It’s a great diversion sure, but I’d rather be diverted by a book.
Kaye: I see television is just another form of story telling, because I also do screenwriting, I suppose. But, my grandmother was blind from diabetes, and she used to sit and listen to the television all the time with the rest of the family. In fact, to entertain me, we would pretend to be the characters in my favorite television programs and make up our own stories. But she also listened to talking books, which were around even when I was a kid. Before the written word, people would sit around a fire and listen to the storyteller relate the stories of tribal histories. I think story is a human quality, no matter how we choose consume it. I think it is wonderful that you choose to consume your story through books, and also that you choose to share your own stories in that way.
Kaye: You’re continually active in trying to raise awareness about your disability and there is a huge pool of readers out there with visual impairments. What are some things authors can do to reach that audience?
Patty: The first thing I think people need to understand is that no two blind people process information the same way. Some read braille. This means when they download an eBook they’re downloading it to a braille display. When you write, don’t use a bunch of fancy fonts. Whether a person is visually challenged, totally blind, or has some other print disAbility you’re losing a huge part of your audience right there.
Some blind people, like me for instance, use a screen reader. A screen reader is a software program such as Windows Narrator, which is built into every Microsoft Windows computer which speaks what’s on the screen. So, if you use photos in your digital work, it’s a great idea to include alt text in your photos. This is especially important for the book cover, which is something designed to grab the attention of the buyer. Odds are, if I run on an ad or a blog post which doesn’t include good descriptive text, not something which says, “A photo of the book cover which says, “The Blended Lives Chronicles” That’s not descriptive. I want to know what the cover looks like.
Be descriptive.
Another thing which sends me away without looking further are unlabeled links. If all I hear is “Llink, Link” every time I scroll through a post or website, I’m not looking at it one, more, second than it takes me to close it out. If I don’t know what that link goes to, it’s not getting clicked.
Another thing, even if you don’t plan to release your work as an audio book, take special care with your grammar. When a blind person uses a screen reader with awareness and ability, they can catch a grammar error a mile away and it can also change the way a scene is perceived. Besides, if we’re lucky, the National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled program might pick it up and record it for their vast library. Make it reader friendly. Use a program such as the Microsoft Read Allowed feature to listen to your books before you publish. I promise you’ll be glad you did.
Kaye: You have lived a life of service. It seems like you do a lot. Can you tell us about your work with the ADP Performing Arts Committee, Blind Information Technology Specialists, Guide Dog Users Incorporated, and the American Council for the Blind?
Patty: First, a correction the organization is “The American Council Of The Blind” and it is written exactly that way. These things are important because ACB (American Council Of The Blind means the organization is made up and run by blind people. The Word for implies it’s done for us. Not of and by us. Words and Details are so important to the meaning of things aren’t they?
As stated in my bio, I’m just now finding my way with BITS. They’re a special interest affiliate of The American Council Of The Blind focusing on blindness technology. They’re getting ready to offer a class on Microsoft 365 which I use daily. This will help me, and others learn to use it with our screen reader programs, and I cannot wait to take it. I’m certain there are many features within this program I am not aware of. I am sure this will enhance my productivity.
The ADP (Audio Description Project) committee is something I got into about a year or so ago. The committee I’m on focuses on the importance of getting audio description into live theater and national park tours, museums, and the like.
Easy right?
Humph! People aren’t as receptive as you’d believe.
Guide Dog Users Incorporated (GDUI) is another special affiliate of The American Council Of The Blind. Our mission, to raise awareness of guide dogs and advocacy issues.
Two of the biggest things we’re working on are problems with being denied a ride by a rideshare company such as Uber and troubles with needing to prove our dogs are real service animals before we can fly.
One would think in the 21ST century this wouldn’t be a problem, but it is. In fact, thanks to a lot of people abusing the system with their birds, bunnies, and snakes we’ve been pushed back decades.
I’m currently running in the GDUI 2024 election. I hope to be elected as a board of director. This will place me in a position where I can do work with a much more narrowed focus toward advocacy and awareness. Having the power of an entire bord alongside you can surely be effective.
Kaye: Your Blended Lives Chronicles series features a blind protagonist, who has learned to overcome other disabilities as well. What has Laya Moonwalker done to adapt to her afflictions? She even has a trusted guide dog, King, who she has a unique connection with, and she serves on governing boards in her world. How much of Laya Moonwalker is you?
Patty: Let me start with the synopsis of the book.
Lady Laya MoonWalker is a well respected author and magazine owner and a high priestess in the magickal community. After a drawn-out battle with the forces of dark magik, she has come into her own. She lives and works on Planet Korponious, where she is the owner and creator of an Interplanetary Magazine called “Blended Lives Chronicles.” Her mission is to blend the lines of race, creed, and disability that separate so many and to elevate the recognition of the training and ability of Service Animals of all kinds to a new level. She has just been accepted into the Blended Lives Federation and now hopes to continue her work in a way like nothing known to her before.
Laya has created allot of wreckage along the way through her dark journey into the light, and now she wishes to set this to right. She has just received her best break ever. Frank Prince, the CEO of The Blended Lives Learning Center, has invited her to the Celtic New Year Convention and Witches Ball as a reporter to write a story on the progress of The Blended Lives Planetary Federation. She will be their guest speaker at the opening ceremonies.
When Laya arrives at the Celtic Convention, she finds herself face to face with an old and dear friend, Blended Lives Learning Center Instructor and member of the Order of the Night, Derrick Gibbous. As they begin to connect, causing old sparks to reignite, they are tossed into a nasty battle from which not everyone will escape. People are not as they seem, and not everyone supports the side for which they appear to work.
As their love for one another grows, so does the battle. Despite everything, Laya and Derrick are determined to see their work to unite beings of all kinds succeed.
As you can see, Laya walks a lot of paths within her life. Of course, she is a work of fiction, but her battle with mental illness is quite real. That and what she experienced at the hands of her fiancé Jack also came from my own personal experience.
We’re to write what we know so that part is me.
Another thing which comes from my own perspective is the relationship she and King have together. This too comes from my own experience. My guide dog and I are quite bonded, and he needs no human words to let me know what’s what. If people would only pay attention, they would have no problem reading their dog’s thoughts. Maybe it’s a bit dramatized, but it’s also quite real. The trainers mean it when they say, “What you think and feel travels down the leash, and what the dog thinks and feels comes back.”
But for me, it’s more. I can be sitting in the living room not speaking a sound, only thinking to Blue that it’s time to go out or eat and the next thing I know, he’s by my side. Coincidence? No.
Kaye: You have founded and run a couple of different businesses which can be found on your site, Patty’s Worlds: Tell-It-To-The-World Marketing, of which you also host a podcast, and The Writer’s Grapevine Online Magazine. Tell us a little about these two endeavors.
Patty: They are one in the same. Nothing changed about the business I run other than the name and a little restructuring on the pricing.
I’m a content promoter and now I just have people pay a fee for being a sponsoring member of Patty’s Worlds and they receive those services.
Kaye: You also have stories in the Visions and Midnight Roost anthologies, and poetry included in the Poetry Treasures 4 anthology by WordCrafter Press. Can you talk a little about collaborating on an anthology and how that went for you?
Patty: I enjoy collaborating with other writers on such projects. Three things gave me problems when working with a few situations in the production and marketing side.
First, authors need to have a good awareness of what an anthology is and how it gets put together. I once worked with an author who had no idea what was in store when she got the idea. She ended up having to backtrack. There was no contract spelling out who had what right, how royalties would be split, a whole host of things were not dealt with correctly right from the start. Had I not already had some experience with anthologies by that point it could have been a true disaster. Instead, I wrote to her, with some tips and a mock contract and helped her get back on track. The anthology was published, and I made it in.
The second problem I have had when collaborating with authors on anthology projects has been consistency. Again, having all one’s ducks in a row before one begins is absolutely a must.
These things being out of whack for a blind person can make an already daunting job twice as hard. For me at least, I want and need to know exactly what I need to be doing as my part of any project and if those in charge don’t have it together, I’m sunk before I ever begin. That’s more an OCD issue rather than a blindness issue. This makes it extremely hard for someone with a mental health disability.
Finally, I had to deal with working on the marketing end of things with others. Blog tours can be absolutely maddening. I’ve all but stopped participating. I refuse to put a post on my blog without graphic labels (Alt text) in photos, and unlabeled links. I’ve said it at least a jillion time yet when I get into a tour some of the tour stops don’t comply with my wishes and then I’m stuck having to reblog a post somewhere I already know blind readers will not enjoy. So, if you’re out there reading and you’re thinking it might be a great idea to collaborate with me, make sure you’re ready to learn how to jump those hurdles because they’re non-negotiable.
No descriptions or labels, no deal.
Kaye: Please let readers know where they can find you online.
Patty: I’m happy you included me in your interview series. I hope people have a little better understanding of who I am and what I do.
Just in case I left anything out, here’s all my information below. I’ve included links to The American Council Of The Blind, Guide Dog Users Incorporated and BITS.
Please make sure to visit them to gain a better understanding.
Thanks again for reading.
May Harmony find You and Blessid Be.
About Patty L. Fletcher
Updated April 2024.
Patty Fletcher is a single mother with a beautiful daughter, of whom she is enormously proud. She has a great son-in-law and six beautiful grandchildren. From April 2011 through September 2020, she owned and handled a black Labrador from The Seeing Eye® named King Campbell Lee Fletcher A.K.A. Bubba. Sadly, after a long battle with illness on September 24, 2020, King Campbell went to the Rainbow Bridge where all is peace and love. In July 2021, she returned to The Seeing Eye® and was paired with a Black Labrador Golden Retriever cross named Blue.
PATTY’S BLINDNESS…
Patty was born one and a half months premature. Her blindness was caused by her being given too much oxygen in the incubator. She was partially sighted until 1991, at which time she lost her sight due to an infection after cataract surgery and high eye pressure. She used a cane for 31 years before making the change to a guide dog.
WHERE SHE LIVES AND WORKS…
Currently, Patty lives and works in Kingsport, Tenn.
Though she’s not yet found her place there, she is learning things from their informational content.
She’s the creator and owner of Tell-It-To-The-World Marketing (Author, Blogger, Business Assist), The Writer’s Grapevine Online Magazine and the creator and host of the Talk to Tell-It-To-The-World Marketing Podcast, which have recently been reconstructed and can all be found in Patty’s Worlds.
WRITING GOAL…
Patty writes with the goal of bridging the great chasm which separates the disabled from the non-disabled.
They classified this 2015 Craig Zahler film as western horror-two genres you don’t see cross often. Although quite graphic, Bone Tomahawk has a slow, but necessary, build-up, which ends up telling a powerful but horrific story, with Kurt Russell as a strong lead character.
I admit, I grew up knowing Russell as a child actor, portraying roles in Disney films such as The Shaggy Dog and The Computer That Wore Tennis Shoes, and still to this day, I have a hard time buying into his tough guy roles like Snake Pliskin in Escape From New York or Wyatt Earp in Tombstone. But I must say that Russell, by the end of each of those movies, had become the character in my mind, and they were all characters I had come to like. In this film he portrays the tough small town Sheriff with a strong sense of morals, adding to the impact of the story through his portrayal.
The story builds slow, with an abduction serving as the inciting incident, sending the Sheriff and his compatriots into the desolate and wild landscape of the American frontier in pursuit, determined to bring the captives back or avenge them. The Sheriff and his elderly deputy are joined by a bounty hunter and theinjured husband of the abducted woman, and they all seem like unlikely companions, making for a adequate amount of tension and inner turmoil along the way as they strive to find and face an unknown enemy. What they find is worse than their darkest imaginings.
The setting may be the western frontier, but there will be no doubt as to why Bone Tomahawk was given the horror classification. The monsters that must be battled are of the human variety, but they are horrific and brutal, none-the-less. The scenes are graphic and violent, and sure to touch a nerve.
The ending was unexpected, but I’m not providing any spoilers for this powerful movie.
For horror fans who are not squeemish, this movie tells a impactful tale that will touch you at the deepest levels of your own humanity.
About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and her Time-Travel Adventure novel, The Rock Star & The Outlaw. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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This post is sponsored by WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services.
Whether it’s editing, publishing, or promotion that you need, WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services can help at a price you can afford.
When newlywed Rachel Corrigan agrees to accompany her husband, Tom, to his family estate before starting their lives together in the city, it is an opportunity to get to know him and to explore the manor where he grew up. But when Rachel arrives she finds Corrigan House strange, the nearby town empty, and her husband’s sudden cold demeanor increasingly frightening. She soon learns that one year ago, Tom’s first wife, Lavinia, took her own life in the twisted forest behind Corrigan House. The servants claim that her spirit resides there still, calling out from the wood, her voice as clear as the day she died.
In a desolate town where everyone harbors a secret, Rachel finds herself a prisoner in a place which is becoming increasingly treacherous. When the village priest is found savagely stabbed and on the edge of death, it becomes clear that the remaining townsfolk – witnesses to Lavinia’s demise – are being hunted down one by one. But Lavinia Corrigan is dead. Isn’t she?
I purchased a copy of The Hungry Deep, by J.L. Murray in a Freebooksie deal. All opinions stated here are my own.
The author does a good job of maintaining a level of tension and mystery throughout the steady unfolding of this tale. There is something amiss, but like the protagonist, Rachel Corrigan, you can’t quite put your finger on what it is, until little by little, all the pieces fall into place. The spirit of Tom Corrigan’s first wife, Livinia, haunts the memories of those who knew her. The entire town emptied out after her death and those who are left all bare secrets which may be best left buried. With murder, mayhem, and mystery, this tale promises to be one to keep readers on the edge of their seats, with a satisfying pay-off in the ending.
Mysterious and suspenseful, this gothic horror novel, will hold your attention until the last page. I give The Hungry Deep four quills.
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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review on the Book Review tab above.
Last month’s prompt for a story with a legendary monster did not recieve any responses, so again, there is nothing to vote on. I will however post my entry below, in which my legendary monster is a shape shifter, and in this tale, he happens to be the good guy instead of the villian. I’d be happy to hear any feedback any of you have on it, even though you can’t vote. But first, let’s take a look at this month’s prompt to get those creative juices flowing.
This Month’s Prompt
This month, I want you all to write a ghost story where the ghost is the protagonist and is frustrated by the limitations of ghostlyness which keeps them from resolving a problem unfolding in the physical plane.
This prompt, by definition will be a parnormal story, but you can still cross it with any genre, so tell me the story that you want to tell.
The Rules
Remember, your story can be any genre, so you can get creative. Publish the results on your blog and send the link to me by the last day of the month. Be sure to label them with #WtbRStoryChallenge. Or, if you don’t have a blog, you can send the results directly to me at kayebooth@yahoo.com, and I will publish them or the links back to your blog the following month along with the writing prompt for the next month.
Stick to the rules and after 30 minutes of writing stop. You can finish the story if you like. I hope you do. But you need only submit that 30 minute piece for this challenge. I’ll be writing right along with you. I know the prompt ahead of time, but I won’t begin writing until it has posted. Be sure to have your entry to me by the last day of the month, so I can share them all for readers to vote on.
Another good thing about this not being a live event is you will have the opportunity to edit for grammar, spelling, and punctuation before submitting, and I do want it to be the best you’ve got, of course.
My Last Month’s Submission
Untitled Paranormal Romance
By Kaye Lynne Booth
When Elliot returns to camp, he finds Arabella missing and his sister sitting on the forest floor, he loses focus, almost shifting involuntarily. He quickly gets himself under control, although he can still feel the eagle, restless within him.
Where is she, Diedre? He says the words in his head, knowing his twin doesn’t need him to speak the words aloud. He scans the area as if the girl were somewhere in the clearing, and he might have just overlooked her. It was his job to return her safely to her father. She was his responsibility.
The wizard, Magnus, took her. His sister replies telepathically, as she shakes leaves, pine needles, and other forest debris from her long, blondish-brown hair, brushing through it with her fingers to get whatever won’t let go. He must have shielded himself before he waltzed in here to snatch her, because I couldn’t touch him, even after I let the cougar out.
“How long ago?” he asks aloud, too sharply. “Which way?”
“Long enough for me to return to my human form and catch my breath,” she says, pointing off to the right. “You’ll have no trouble tracking him. He left bloody prints in his wake.”
He cocks his head, giving her a puzzled look.
“From the girl,” she says. “He pulled her inside the shield with him. She grabbed hold of a stick from the fire as he grabbed her. She was doing her best to do some damage as he dragged her away. I think she fought him even harder than she fought you, when you announced that you intended to return her to her father.”
Without another word, he is off in the direction she indicated.
He follows the bloody tracks without stopping for two days, the eagle’s strength and spirit allowing him to endure without food or water, never tiring, through both day and night. It is up to him to get the girl back, no matter the cost. This night, the trail ends at the edge of a sheer cliff, plummeting down hundreds of feet until the land below is drenched in shadows, and darkness so thick that even the eagle’s eyes can’t cut through it. Bloody smears along the cliff face below, like those he has followed here, let him know his adversary climbed down the cliff face with the girl.
Elliot feels the eagle stir, excited, anxious to be loosed, expanding within him. A ragged seam splits the flesh along his spine as he spreads his arms to accept the eagle’s wings, rising into the air. Now, the wings are his, as he extends them, as long as his human form is tall, the wind catching them from below, carrying him off the cliff and out over the land. He descends downward faster than if he were falling, and the cliff face blurs in his vision as he flaps eagle’s wings, his wings, with long, hard strokes, applying his momentum upward. He glides in, lighting on top of a tall pine, affording him a view of the valley below and the entire face of the cliff, as the sun pokes its face over the horizon.
Perched more than a hundred feet above the valley floor, the eagle sees movement from a cave in the face of the cliff. Upon further inspection, he’s found what he seeks: the wizard and his captive prisoner.
Magnus stands at the edge of the cave, staring up into the sun, oblivious to his presence, while Arabella sits on a large rock only a stone’s throw away. She is covered in dirt and dark splotches hint at bruises beneath the filth. She must have fought him every inch of the way. If he tilts his eagle head just right, he can see the sun glinting off the shield surrounding the cave. He needs a distraction to get the wizard to drop the shield long enough for him to get the girl.
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This post is sponsored by Midnight Roost: Weird and Creepy Stories and WordCrafter Press.
20 authors bring your nightmares to life in 23 stories of ghosts, paranormal phenomenon and the horror from the dark crevasses of their minds. Stories of stalkers, both human and supernatural, possession and occult rituals, alien visitations of the strange kind, and ghostly tales that will give you goosebumps. These are the tales that will make you fear the dark. Read them at the Midnight Roost… if you dare.
Welcome to “Chatting with the Pros”. Today, my September guest is author, publisher, and educator Marie Whittaker. Like myself, Marie likes to dip her toes in several different ponds at the same time, and she is a multi-genre independent author, associate publisher and project manager at WordFire Press, and director of Superstars Writing Seminars, and she teaches publishing courses to graduate students at Western State Colorado University.
I met Marie in her capacity at WordFire Press, when I reached out, requesting a Kevin J. Anderson ARC to review back in 2016. Since then, she has kept me in the loop as new WordFire books became available, so I was never at a loss for reviewing materials, and she has been an invaluable resource in lining up authors for the WordCrafter virtual writing conferences in 2020 and 2021, and in connecting with authors for interviews. I was privilaged to get in a few sessions with her at Western, where she shared just a minunte sampling of her vast publishing knowledge with students. But she always shared something that I hadn’t previously known and I always learned something useful from her and she’s prepared to share some great stuff with us here. I hope you will all join me in giving this lady a big welcome.
About Marie Whittaker
Marie Whittaker is an award-winning essayist and author of fantasy for all ages. She is the creator of The Adventures of Lola Hopscotch. A past finalist for an Indie Book Award, and many of her stories appear in various anthologies, including Weird Tales. She enjoys teaching about project and time management for creatives. Marie has worked as a truck driver and raft guide and is now Associate Publisher at WordFire Press and Executive Director for Superstars Writing Seminars. A Colorado native, Marie is a mom to two adult children and Grammy to one who is made of pure magic. Marie resides in Manitou Springs, where she writes and enjoys hiking, gardening, and renovating her historic Victorian home. Marie is an advocate against animal abuse, a dog mom, cat mom, and bunny mom, and habitually adopts rescue animals. Find more about her at mariewhittaker.com.
Interview
Kaye: You are the Associate Publisher and Project Manager for WordFire Press. How do you manage to juggle all the responsibilities of that job, directing Superstars, plus all you do instructing and organizing students at Western, and being a mom and an author yourself?
Marie: It really helps that I love what I do, have a great boss, and am supported by two excellent teams. I also have project management tools at work and live by my calendar for both my professional and personal time blocking. I love teaching. Being an instructor in Gunnison for the WCU Creative Writing Program is a big honor! My kids are adults and out of the house now, but I have a crew of furbabies that have all hit their geriatric years at the same time so it’s like I’m running a pet nursing home over here. Ha! I love these little souls.
Kaye: You are director of Superstars Writing Seminars, which is held in Colorado Springs, Colorado each February. Please tell us about the seminars. What can attendees expect?
Marie: Superstars is a drink-from-the-firehose, deep dive into the business of writing and our industry. As the “OG” conference on the business of writing, we strive to bring in professionals who teach at the top of their fields within our industry. But the best thing of all is Tribe. Superstars has strong tribe culture and our network is one of the best out there. The conference lasts for five days now that we’ve added programming on Sunday until noon. You can find out more at superstarswriting.com. As a special gift to your readers, they can use code MARIE1371 to register with a $100 discount.
Kaye: You have a page on your website labeled “Consulting for Creatives”. Can you talk about the things you do that would fall under author support? What kind of services do you offer?
Marie: I offer a lot in the way of helping creatives find the work/life balance. I love helping other creatives find ways to succeed with time management. I offer advice on different publishing plans, as there are so many ways to create a successful model these days. I mean, not everyone wants to deal the traditional publishing. Some authors want to self-publish. Some want to proceed into the industry with a hybrid approach, like me. I enjoy sharing resources and tools I’ve discovered in my career so far. That can be found, along with my rather dusty blog, at mariewhittaker.com.
Kaye: You are the author of “horror, urban fantasy, children’s books, and supernatural thrillers”. That is quite a combination. How did it come about that you write in this mixture of genres? What inspires you to write?
Marie: I started off writing horror and I’ll always be a horror girl at heart. Most of my fantasy work has horror elements woven through the themes. I created The Adventures of Lola Hopscotch when I got to a good place in my career and decided I wanted to do something to help kids. The series helps kids with bullying and since I was a bullied kid, the topic sits close to my heart. There are three books to that series and the second one, of course, is a children’s horror book. I couldn’t help myself. As far as inspiration goes, I get hit with new story ideas all the time and it’s mostly when a story idea lands at the same time as the title for the work. Once that happens, I’m off to start taking notes and creating the story.
Kaye: For your adult fiction, you write under a penname, Amity Green. Why did you choose to do so? What purpose does it serve? How did you select a new name for yourself?
Marie: That is such a funny story. I mentioned that when I got started, I was writing a lot of horror. I also wrote some romance. My kids were little back then. I decided on a pen name to keep my writing life separate from my home life for my kids. When deciding on the pen name, I was thinking it over while driving from my home town in Colorado to my new home in Austin. The highway took me through a little town called Amity, Texas. It was in the part of Texas that is green and pretty. So, I came up with Amity Green. These days, I write under my real name and am rebranding my previous nom de plume’s work. My LLC is still Amity Studios, which I intend to keep.
Kaye: Please tell us about your urban fantasy Fate and Fire series.
Marie: This is one of my favorite projects. When I was studying British Literature in London, I got the idea for a teenager who was doing the same thing. This character, Tessa, is a lover of antiquities, like me. Then the idea for an adventure happened and she ended up being locked in an old bookstore and changed into a living, breathing gargoyle. I was reading a lot of shapeshifter stuff back then, so… Anyway, she is one of my most loved characters. She’s tenacious and snarky, and her character arc is fantastic. She goes from being an orphan to an underground hero. I adore her story.
About Scales
“With SCALES, Marie Whittaker kicks off the exciting new FATE AND FIRE series in a big way. Wild, creepy, and deeply imaginative dark fantasy. Highly recommended.” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of V-WARS and GLIMPSE
When Tessa Conley earns a scholarship to study in London, she’s locked in an ancient bookstore and transformed into a living, breathing gargoyle in this thrilling dark fantasy tale of magic, myth, and destiny.
Kaye: Your supernatural thriller, The Witcher Chime, was a finalist for the Indie Book Awards in 2017. What is it that makes that book stand out?
Marie: This book is some gritty, supernatural, ghost story horror told in a loose thriller format. I got the idea for the story when I was driving a haul truck on a mine site and had to drive during graveyard shifts. Ironically, I wrote that book back when I was getting rights back to another project and I wanted to learn more about being an indie publisher. So, I decided not to send it to any agents and just publish it myself. I entered it into a few indie contests. I’m really happy I published this book myself. It proved to be the best tool for learning about what goes on behind the scenes in the publishing marketplaces.
Kaye: You have a children’s series, The Adventures of Lola Hopscotch. Tell us about the books and the series.
Marie: This project started out as just one picture book to help kids with bullying. I decided to reach out to a new audience by using Kickstarter. The campaign funded and we created Lola Hopscotch and the First Day of School, which was published the following year. The project did pretty well on Kickstarter and we ended up with enough money to have art created for another book. I was thrilled to write Lola Hopscotch and the Spookaroo, which is the kid’s horror book I mentioned earlier. After that, it seemed a trilogy was in order, so I wrote the last book in the series. There’s A New Kid, Lola Hopscotch! helps kids understand how to be kind to new kids at school who might be different in some way. We picked a platypus for the new kid. It was a great time. The trilogy was featured by the PACER Center for Antibullying and StandfortheSilent.org.
About the Lola Hopscotch Series
The Adventures of Lola Hopscotch is a children’s picture book series focusing on spreading kindness, meant for adults to read with kids in order to foster communication about sensitive social issues from an early age.
Kaye: You have something you’d like to share with readers connected to your Lola Hopscotch books. Tell us the exciting news.
Marie: Since the publication of the first book, adult and kid fans of Lola Hopscotch have been asking, “Where can we get the bunny?” I’ve never expanded an IP to include toys or games, much less plush! So, I didn’t really know what to do for the longest time. I finally decided to dig into some research. After all, I, too, want the bunny. So, we decided to embrace a new crowdfunding platform and began working with the good folks over at BackerKit. They are wonderful so far. We put together a fun campaign that you can follow right now. Here’s the handy link. I would LOVE it if you would follow the project and help bring Lola Hopscotch to life for kids to hold while they read.
Lola Hopscotch Plush Pre-Launch
Kaye: What is the single best piece of advice you can offer to aspiring authors?
Marie: Keep writing, and never stop learning. The moment you think you know everything there is to know about our industry is when you accept the career of a midlister, at best. Set expectations for yourself and your writing career so you can balance your life from the beginning. And lastly, it’s my experience that series sell better than stand alone books. Just food for thought.
My Review of Chupadogra
I recieved a digital ARC copy of Chupadogra in exchange for an honest review. All opinions stated here are my own.
Chupadogra: The Manitou Monster Hunters Club, by Marie Whittaker, is Book 1 in her Legendary Roots series. Its a delightful middle grade story about a young boy, Jack, who like the Jack in the fairy tale, is drawn to a magical item better left lie. That Jack is tempted by some magic beans, while this one is called by a magic book, but both magical items lead to adventures beyond their wildest dreams and battle a monster of myth. Like that other Jack, he must use his wits, (and the help of a former bully and his younger sister), to outsmart his opponent, who is bigger, and meaner, but not so bright.
Jack disobeys his grandmother, and lets out all his family secrets, along with a mythical cat-eating Chupadogra, so it naturally falls to Jack to capture the beast and save the cats of Manitou Springs. Lauren Vanbury becomes an unlikely ally in his quest, and they are joined by his kid sister, Gracie, who won’t be left out, no matter how hard Jack tries to exclude her. This story is full of surprises as readers learn the magical secrets right along with Jack and his friends, but there’s no spoilers here.
A charming middle grade mystery which carries readers into worlds of magic and myth. Delightfully entertaining. I give Chupadogra five quills.
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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review on the Book Review tab above.
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