Chatting with the Pros: Marie Whittaker

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.

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.

__________________________

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.

_____________________________

Would you like to see your book or blog site advertised on Writing to be Read? Visit the WtbR Sponsor Page.

Just want to show your support for this author and the Writing to be Read site? Make a donation