Brett Nelson's Blog

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Brett Nelson

February 25, 2023

As a person, I have a strong dislike of social media.

As an author, I like to participate in reader and author groups on social media because it’s nice to see how readers react to books and authors. Or at least I thought so.

I was in a group on Facebook for a few months until I finally got sick of reading the posts of twenty thousand toxic and angry people who never had anything nice to say about anyone or anything.

One thing that really stood out to me as an author was the level of hate that people spewed when anyone mentioned Christian Fiction, either by way of reviewing a Christian-themed book they’d read and wanted to share, or just asking for Christian book recommendations.

Anytime anyone posted anything to do with Christian fiction, the haters flocked out like a swarm of ants on a spilled ice cream cone. Hundreds of haters “laugh emojied” the post, which is a form of hate speech if the post isn’t meant to be humorous. We won’t even get into all the nasty comments that were made.

Finally, I left the group to get away from all the nasty toxic people, but it got me thinking, why do so many people hate Christian fiction?

I guess I can somewhat understand non-believers hating it, because the Bible says if you don’t have God in your heart, then you don’t have love, because God is love. When non-believers spew their hatred toward anything Christian, they’re just being true to themselves and their nature.

Before I made my very happy departure from the negativity of the Facebook group, I asked a few of the haters why they hated on Christian Fiction so much, and here’s some of the most common answers:

1) CHRISTIAN AUTHORS TODAY ARE NOTHING LIKE C.S. LEWIS. IF YOU WANT TO READ GOOD CHRISTIAN FICTION, READ C.S. LEWIS.

Authors today aren’t like C.S. Lewis? Well, duh! God only created ONE C.S. Lewis, and to judge every Christian author who ever lived to C.S. Lewis is ridiculous. What a boring world of fiction would it be if every single author wrote just like C.S. Lewis? It’s like saying secular authors today are all bad because they’re not Shakespeare. Every author, secular or Christian, brings their own voice into the world, and it’s okay if that voice sounds nothing like Shakespeare or Lewis, because, at the end of the day, even Lewis and Shakespeare have their critics.

2) CHRISTIAN AUTHORS ALWAYS PAINT CHRISTIAN CHARACTERS AS FLAWLESS PEOPLE WHO NEVER DO ANYTHING WRONG.

Really? Have the people who say this ever picked up a single Christian fiction book and read it? I’m a huge fan of Christian fiction, and I can say with certainty that characters in Christian fiction are rarely portrayed as perfect and flawless. If anything, they are portrayed as perfectly flawed. Christian fiction books that I’ve read in the past have characters who struggle with:

Immense anger and unwillingness to forgive those who’ve done them wrong. Nearly every book I’ve read has at least one character who struggles with underlying issues of anger and unforgiveness.Struggling to tamp down sexual temptation and sexual urges in a society that glorifies everything having to do with sex. We live in a sex-crazed world, and Christians aren’t immune to the beguiling call of such things. We may not act on such urges (a lot of Christians do act on such urges) but we are not immune to the temptation that the world offers.Coming to terms with their own hypocrisy and sins, because, yes, Christians aren’t perfect–far from it. Any Christian who says that Christians don’t sin…well, they’re either a liar, or they’re deluded.Reconciling their tarnished pasts with a God who forgives them of their sins, and with a world who won’t let them forget their sins. When I say this, I’m not talking solely about the secular world, either. I’m pointing a finger at the Christian world. Anyone who has been a Christian for any length of time knows that Christians will rush to flog and kick down an already fallen and hurting Christian. Christians like their cliques, and many are happy to leave the ‘undesirables’ in their midst on the outside looking in. In this regard, the secular world seems way better than the Christian world, in many cases. The secular world, with open arms, will often accept people with damaged and tarnished pasts, while the Christian world often looks down on and whispers behind the backs of fallen Christians. In this aspect, my fellow Christians, we MUST do better and stop being judgmental of each other. God gave us His amazing grace, so how about we reflect that grace into the world around us? Especially to the fallen, hurting, and disgraced ones, whether they’re Christian or not.Moving on with life after they’ve been hurt by others. Even Christians struggle to enter healthy relationships when they’ve been hurt by other people’s callous behaviors. Hurt people are often hesitant to befriend new people. Hurt people often don’t want to enter into romantic relationships. Hurt people often don’t want to darken the door of yet another church because they’ve been, seemingly, irreparably broken by the very people who claim to carry the good and loving nature of the God they serve.

Despite what haters of Christian fiction claim, there is a never-ending supply of broken and imperfect characters for readers to learn from, and even in which to see some version of yourself embedded in the story.

Photo Courtesy: Dayan Rodio @pexels

3) CHRISTIAN FICTION IS PREACHY AND JUDGMENTAL:

This is a hugely untrue generalization that I frequently see regarding Christian fiction. Is there Christian fiction out there that is preachy and judgmental? A resounding…yes! In all honesty, the large majority of Christian fiction that I read, though, is not preachy, but is simply characters limping along, imperfections and all, attempting to live out their faith, sometimes hitting the mark, and other times missing it entirely. It’s called being a fallible human being.

In fiction, the same as in real life, characters often berate themselves for their failures to live up to their own expectations and moral code. When characters in a book strive to live up to a moral code that is different from the reader’s moral code, that doesn’t make the book judgmental and preachy, and it certainly isn’t usually a personal attack on the reader. It just means the fictional characters in the book are in a different place with different ways of living than the reader. Please, stop trying to impose things onto authors and their books that aren’t there, and just see them for the fictional entertainment that they are meant to be.

In my opinion, when readers accuse a Christian novel of being ‘preachy and judgmental,’ what they’re really saying is some version of, “I don’t agree with this author’s way of thinking or believing, therefore, I’ll publicly label it as preachy and judgmental to make me feel better about myself.”

4) CHRISTIAN FICTION IS POORLY WRITTEN:

Again, this is a grossly unfair generalization of an entire genre. I read mostly Christian fiction because I prefer clean, uplifting stories. That said, I enjoy certain authors in secular fiction, as well. I think reading both Christian and secular books make me a well-rounded reader. As an avid reader, I’ve read many poorly written Christian fiction books and just as many, if not more, poorly written secular books. Both genres have their fair share of well-written books and poorly written books.

5) CHRISTIAN FICTION IS ONLY ENTERTAINING FOR CHRISTIAN READERS:

This statement couldn’t be further from the truth. I know there are many Christians out there who only read secular books and wouldn’t touch a Christian book with a ten-foot pole (these people are missing out on so many good books by dismissing Christian fiction.)

I assume many secular readers are just as offended by gospel truth and Godly living as I am by offensive and profane language/themes. As a reader, I can assure you that I abandon more secular books than I finish because I won’t tolerate excessive profanity and filthy themes. There is a saying, “you are what you eat.” In other words, if you eat nothing but junk, you’ll always feel like junk. If you choose a healthy balance of nutrition, you’ll look and feel better.

The same principle applies to what you allow into your mind. If you always read filth, then filth is what you’ll feel in your soul. Many will not agree with this, and that’s fine, but that doesn’t make it any less true. If you constantly fill your life with books that are profane and filthy, don’t be surprised when you have an unhealthy spiritual life of toxicity and negativity and anger and depression. Negativity in, negativity out. Goodness in, goodness out. That’s how it works.

Does that mean reading Christian fiction will repair all that ails you? Of course not. A Christian reader can be full of anger, and negativity, and depression, but again, what you put in is ultimately what comes out.

When it comes to reading, I choose to put Christian and secular fiction on the same level. In both, there’s good books and bad books. In both, there can be important lessons from which a reader can learn and find entertainment.

If you have a poor opinion of Christian fiction, and if you truly haven’t given it a fair shot, may I recommend that you pick one up and give it a try, as with all things in life, with an open mind. It may never be your favorite genre, but I think you’ll be surprised to find the pages of Christian fiction filled with messy people with messy lives who, in the end, just want happiness and contentment.

Until next time!

If you’re interested in my books:

https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Live-Brett-Nelson-ebook/dp/B07TWN5J3Chttps://www.amazon.com/Lost-Song-Brett-Nelson-ebook/dp/B08CZ6NX4Ghttps://www.amazon.com/When-Raindrops-Fall-Brett-Nelson-ebook/dp/B093B32DWLhttps://www.amazon.com/War-Songs-Novel-Spiritual-Warfare-ebook/dp/B09RYZQ6V

Photo Courtesy of Taryn Elliot

Wow! It’s been an incredibly busy past couple of months, and for the first time since I started my blog I missed submitting an AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT for the month of July. I’ve learned that pushing out a blog every month is so much harder and time-consuming than I imagined in the beginning. It’s something I enjoy doing, though, so it’s all worth it.

This past weekend I had the official book launch of my newest book “War Songs” at the local bookstore. It was a fantastic day and many people stopped in to buy a book and just visit. For me, book signings are fun because it’s a way to get to see a lot of people at once, people I know and even people I don’t know.

The highlight of the day was sharing the book signing with an author that I admire, thriller writer Kiersten Modglin, an Amazon best-selling author from the Nashville area. After the signing, we prolonged the evening with dinner where we got to visit about books, tv shows and movies, family, and of course, authoring.

As an author with more than thirty books under her belt, it was a joy to share the exciting aspects of authoring with her as well as the not-so-joyous aspects. Only another author can fully understand the joys and pains that go along with putting a book out into the world, and it was nice to encourage and be encouraged by a fellow author.

If you haven’t read any of her books, I highly encourage it!

Speaking of thriller writers, that brings me around to today’s Author Spotlight.

Jennifer Pierce is an Amazon best-selling Christian Suspense author. Her book “Hidden Danger” is a 2019 Selah Award Winner, and “Expecting Danger” is a 2019 Selah Award finalist. She is a member of the River Valley Writers, and she has published four novels to date. A new novel, Tropical Target, will release in the fall of 2023.

Brett: Jennifer—Thank you for being a guest on my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT blog! I always like to begin our interview by going back a little in time. As a child, were you an avid reader? If so, what childhood books formed your love for reading?

Jennifer: Yes! I’ve always loved books. I have fond memories of my grandma taking me to the library. She’d do genealogy research and I’d hang out in the children’s section. I had a bunch of those Little Golden Books and Dr. Seuss as a younger kid. One of my absolute favorite books is There’s a Monster at the End of This Book featuring Grover. As I got older, I loved R. L. Stine’s Fear Street books.

Brett: Tell us about the first time you tried writing. Was a novel your first attempt, or did you start smaller and work your way up to full-length novels?

Jennifer: I wrote poetry in high school and college. I also did the customary writing assignments for school. I still have a few of those lying around somewhere. I wrote some flash fiction around the time I started writing Hidden Danger. I can’t remember which I started first though.

Brett: Putting a novel into the world, especially for the first time, can be intimidating. Tell us about the first novel you ever published. How did it feel to realize your first attempt at writing was out there for anyone in the world to pick up and read?

Jennifer: Hidden Danger was the first novel I had ever written. I had been told writers don’t usually sell their first novel. It had been rejected by Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense and I hadn’t given much thought to it ever actually being published. So, when I received a contract on it, I was ecstatic. As release day got closer, I got more nervous. Would I sell any books? Would people like it?

Brett: This is a nearly impossible question to ask an author because our books are our blood, sweat, and tears, so forgive me in advance. Of all the books you’ve written, can you tell us the top three all-time favorites you’ve written, and why?

Jennifer: Well, I’ve only published four so it will be easy. Lol. I think I have less excitement with Hidden Danger than with the others. I can’t tell you why that is, but it is. Giving Grace was an adventure to write since it is just contemporary romance with no suspense. I can’t just kill someone when I get stuck. I loved writing the humor. I loved the plot and characters of Expecting Danger so much that I was posting about my love of it on social media when my editor was like send it to me already! Deadly Connection was written in less than 4 or 5 months. And a huge chunk of it was written in the last two weeks before deadline.

Brett: You write in the Christian Suspense genre. Why did you choose that as the genre to write?

Jennifer: I fell in love with Love Inspired Suspense books. I’ve always been a mystery/thriller reader but LIS hooked me on romantic suspense novels.

Brett: Two of your books, Hidden Danger and Deadly Connection, recently hit #1 in the Christian Suspense category on Amazon. For those who may not have read your books yet, give us a little synopsis of each of these books.

Hidden Danger: Maggie Jones returns to Whitehaven, Texas to prepare her father’s estate for sale. Someone starts stalking her using lines from an old nursery rhyme. She’ll have to trust the man that broke her heart years before to keep her safe.

Deadly Connection: An attempted kidnapping, throws waitress Quinn Matthews, and Private Investigator, Reid Lucas, into nonstop danger. They’ll have to figure out the connection to find the person behind the attacks.

Brett: All authors, whether they admit it or not, dream about seeing their book at the top of a best-sellers list. Tell us how it felt when your book hit #1 on the Amazon best-seller list for the first time.

Jennifer: A mixture of excitement and pride. It was absolutely amazing.

Brett: As I said earlier, you write in the Christian Suspense genre. Would you ever consider dabbling in a different genre at some point in your writing career? If so, which genre would that be?

Jennifer: I am open minded to writing in other genres. I’ve written a contemporary romance novella, Giving Grace. I have an idea and the beginning of another contemporary romance novel. I have a couple ideas for YA (contemporary and dystopian). I’ve also been giving thrillers a thought recently. Whatever I write will either be Christian Fiction or clean fiction.

Brett: Of all the books you’ve written, is there one that stands out as the most difficult one to write, either emotionally or technically, etc? Why?

Jennifer: I think maybe Giving Grace was harder. Because it was a novella it was harder to try to fit an entire story in fewer words without the romance feeling like instalove. Not only that but it was straight romance. There was no suspense or bad guy so when I got stuck I couldn’t just shoot someone to make it better.

Photo Courtesy of Evie Shaffer

Brett: About how long does it take you to write one novel?

Jennifer: Depends. Hidden Danger and Expecting Danger approximately a year. Deadly Connection was less than 5 months, 18k of those words in the last two weeks before deadline. Giving Grace was around a month. It had a deadline as well. It seems I work better with deadlines. I have a novel I’ve written and submitted to Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line. It took roughly a year to write. Tropical Target took a little over a month. Then I’ve started the first book in a series I plan to indie publish that I was able to write 20k in less than 3 months.

Brett: Many of our readers may not have knowledge about the inner workings of writing. Tell us something you encountered that surprised you about being an author.

Jennifer: There’s so much more work than just writing the novel. You have to edit which I expected but sometimes the edits kill you. Then there’s marketing. I hate marketing. I’m really not a look at me type of person and I hate trying to sell stuff. When you write, you basically have to sell yourself, or your works, to other people.

Brett: Writing a novel is something that we authors grow into and perfect the more we write. Think back to the very first book you wrote, then to the last book you wrote. What is something you didn’t know about writing in the beginning that has become valuable knowledge to you—that has made you a better writer four novels later.

Jennifer: EMOTIONS. The editing process for Hidden Danger taught me that I’m emotionally constipated. I got the edits back and my editor sounded like a therapist. How does that make her feel? What is that character feeling? Etc. I purchased the Emotion Thesaurus and use it A LOT.

Brett: What’s the best technical information you’ve learned from working with book editors that has improved your writing?

Jennifer: See the answer above. Emotions are important. It allows the reader to connect to the characters. If they don’t connect with them, they don’t finish the story.

Brett: Think back over all the books you’ve written. You’ve written many characters. Which character would you not get along with in real life? Which one would be a friend you’d most like to have?

Jennifer: Since I write danger, I’d go with the bad guys. Lol. I don’t think there would be a non-bad guy character I wouldn’t like. I think Jake from Expecting Danger and I would get along. I feel like I gave him a good sense of humor.

Brett: When you start writing a book, do you always know the title before you begin writing? Or have there been times when the title didn’t emerge until later in the writing process?

Jennifer: Titles are hard. I didn’t have a title for Hidden Danger until close to publication. The publisher and I decided we didn’t like what I had titled it “Small Town Stalker”. I literally brainstormed with other writers looking for titles and had over 100 suggestions that I didn’t like. I actually had the title for Expecting Danger before Hidden Danger.

Brett: Do you ever finish a book and worry that you’ll never be able to write another one?

Jennifer: Not until you asked. I know I’ll be able to write another book. It’s just a matter of when. I’m a procrastinator. That’s why I like deadlines.

Brett: After completing a novel, how long does it take before you launch into the next one?

Jennifer: After I finish I novel, I put it to the side for a couple of weeks before doing a round of editing. That’s usually when I start thinking about the next one.

Brett: Give us a description of your working space. Is there anything you must have to flow in the creative process? When you take a minute to look out the nearest window, what do you see?

Jennifer: Funny you should ask. After I sold my first novel, I got a desk from my aunt and uncle and set it up in my bedroom by the window that looks into the backyard. Right now, it’s collecting junk. I’ll usually sit in the bed or on the couch with the laptop. A lot of times I’ll lay in the bed with a pen and notebook. I also write on my lunch break.

Brett: Let’s pretend Hollywood just called and they want to make a blockbuster movie of ONE of your books, and you must choose which book. Which would it be?  You also get to be the Casting Director—who plays the main protagonist and the main antagonist?

Jennifer: That’s a tough one! I’ll go with Expecting Danger. As for the actors/actresses, I have no idea. LOL

Brett: Who is your current favorite author(s)? What book are you reading?

Jennifer: Asking me to pick my favorite author is like asking me to pick my favorite child. I can’t choose just one. I love Lisa Phillips, Virginia Vaughan, Dana R. Lynn, Shirlee McCoy, just to name a few. Right now, I’m reading the John Decker Supernatural Thriller series by Anthony M. Strong and Lisa Phillips upcoming thriller Cold Dead Night.

Brett: I remember the first time I cried when writing a particularly emotional scene in my novel, A Christmas to Live For. I wasn’t expecting that to happen, and it took me by surprise. Has this happened to you? If so, can you describe which book and scene that was?

Jennifer: Gonna be honest. I remember making a Facebook post about a scene making me teary eyed but for the life of me I can’t remember what book or what scene. I think it was the end of Expecting Danger.

Brett: If you could have lunch with another author, living or dead, who would that be?

Jennifer: Lisa Phillips we chat a lot on Facebook and Discord and she’s mentoring me. She’s amazing. I think we’re both a lot alike.

Brett: If I were to drive to your home and have dinner with the Pierce family, what would be on the menu?

Jennifer: Depends, are you surprising us or do I know you’re coming. Depending on your answer, ordering pizza or chicken spaghetti.

Brett: If you could spend an entire weekend doing nothing but bingeing your favorite television shows, what would you watch?

Jennifer: I really don’t watch a lot of television. I love On Patrol Live. Other shows I like are Cops, Crossing Jordan, Castle, Brooklyn 99, Homicide Hunter, Forensic Files.

Brett: What’s your favorite hobby/activity for the rare occasions you’re not writing?

Jennifer: Reading.

Brett: What’s your favorite format when you have time to sit down with a book (ebook, physical book, audiobook?)

Jennifer: I prefer physical books but I’ll read whatever I can. I have Kindle Unlimited so I do read a lot of ebooks.

Brett: Have you ever read someone else’s novel and left thinking, “I could have written that better?”

Jennifer: Not really. I’ve read novels where I’ve thought they could have done better or they needed to work on something here or there but not that I could do it better.

Brett: I know authors don’t like talking about their work before it’s completed but give us ONE word to best describe the novel you’re working on now.

Jennifer: Murder

Brett: Jennifer, thank you so much for being a guest on my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Is there a date when your next novel will be published?

Jennifer: Tropical Target will release fall of 2023. I’ll have a novel as part of a collection release in the summer of 2023.

For readers interested in contacting Jennifer Pierce, visit her website at: http://www.jenniferpiercewrites.com/

Photo courtesy of: Jennifer Pierce

If you’re interested in picking up a Jennifer Pierce novel:

Cover Image courtesy of Jennifer Pierce

Hidden Danger: https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Danger-Small-Town-Guardians-Book-ebook/dp/B07937X2S

Cover Image courtesy of Jennifer Pierce

Expecting Danger: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KT5ZG8K

Cover Image courtesy of Jennifer Pierce

Deadly Connection: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GY1QNJXCover Image courtesy of Jennifer Pierce

Giving Grace: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MN1TKB5

If you’d like to follow Jennifer Pierce on social media, you can find her by clicking on these links:

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jennifer-pierce

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferPierceauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovereadwriterepeat/

If you’d like to pick up one of Brett’s books: https://www.amazon.com/Brett-Nelson/e/B08D2C1YSC

Amazon Top 100
Best-Seller (#4)Amazon Top 100
Best-Seller (#82)

6/24/22 by Brett Nelson

Photo courtesy of Fabien Burgue

Thank you for swinging over to my website and checking out my June 2022 Author Spotlight. As I write this, it is June, raining, and in the mid 70’s while a few days ago it was in the mid 90s. When you live in the south you just don’t know what you’ll get when it comes to the weather. I’m sure I’m in the minority when I say that I’ve been over the summer heat from the first day it started. I despise heat and humidity and allergies and shorts and flip flops, and…well, you get the picture.

I’d like to say that June has been an eventless month so far, but my dad fell, broke his hip, and had to have a partial hip replacement. He is two weeks postop and has just begun the arduous chore of rehabilitation. He has a long road ahead of him for the next few weeks while he’s in rehab, so if you have a few prayers to send our way for him, we’d appreciate it. Once he’s done in rehab and back living at home, please divert all your prayers to my mother, because she’ll need extra prayers to have the patience to deal with an ailing and recuperating man. Just kidding. They are both good sports and we all will do whatever it takes to help get him back to where he needs to be.

As for my writing, I’ve completed my fifth book and am in the process of doing my initial edits before I send them off to professional editors. Then comes the fun part…working with my book cover designer to come up with fun and interesting concepts for the cover. For me, seeing the initial book covers for the first time is like Christmas morning. Plus, my designer is great, so the three options she gives always makes for a very difficult decision. The first glimpses of the covers make the story come alive in a tangible way because until then it has only been alive in my imagination.

I’m excited for book five to come out because it’s a bit different from my usual romance-type tropes. Most experts tell authors to pick a genre and stay in it, which is good advice, I suppose. But I’m relatively early in my writing career and don’t yet have the large following I hope to have one day, so I think I can genre hop and see how my books perform in other genres. Hopefully soon I’ll find my stride and the band of loyal followers that every author dreams of.

I’m not sure yet when book five will publish. I generally shoot for a spring release, but my goal is to publish book five in time for the 2022 holiday season. I’m also in various states of completion on two other novels. One is a sequel to “When Raindrops Fall.” The other is my first attempt at a mystery/thriller. I also have two other books completed, but I haven’t decided how well I like them, so no immediate plans to do anything with them as of yet.

In the past, I’ve written really long books, so my goal after book four was to focus on writing shorter books (in the neighborhood of 70,000 – 80,000 words; my previous books range from 100,000 to 140,000 words). My reasoning is that if I write shorter books that are still within the industry standard for the genres I write, then I should be able to publish two books per year instead of my usual one.

I’ll use my mystery/thriller book (I’m over 10,000 words into it already, so I’m at a great start with it) to segue into my guest on today’s AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT.

Jenifer Ruff is a USA Today best-selling author as well as an Amazon best-selling author. She writes mystery/suspense and medical thrillers. Her series books include: the Agent Victoria Heslin series, the Brook Walton Series, and the FBI & CDC thriller series.

She lives in North Carolina, enjoys hiking, and is a fitness enthusiast.

Her book PRETTY LITTLE GIRLS won the Reader’s Favorite International Book Aware in Thriller Fiction in 2019. To date, she has thirteen published novels.

Brett: Jenifer—Thank you for being a guest on my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT blog! I always like to begin our interview by going back a little in time. As a child, were you an avid reader? If so, what childhood books formed your love for reading?

Jenifer: I was definitely an avid reader growing up. One of those kids who perpetually had a book open. My father was the director of a library. There was always a new stack of books around my house for me to read. My parents loved gifting me with first editions of special books. I gravitated to mysteries and thrillers, starting back as far as I can remember.

Brett: Tell us about the first time you tried writing. Was a novel your first attempt, or did you start smaller and work your way up to full-length novels?

Jenifer: My first written and published work was my graduate school thesis-a case study on joint commission accreditation for managed health care organizations—just as boring as it sounds. I only finished because I had to, and it was sheer determination to write and rewrite and edit that thing. But what I remember most is that once finished, seeing it bound in leather, I had this fantastic sense of accomplishment, as in, wow, I actually wrote that. My goal then was to write something innovative (in the managed care world), not to entertain. Now my goal is to write intriguing mystery-thrillers readers can’t put down.

Brett: Putting a novel into the world, especially for the first time, can be intimidating. Tell us about the first novel you ever published. How did it feel to realize your first attempt at writing was out there for anyone in the world to pick up and read?

Jenifer: Great question. I vividly remember the day my first book became available to the public. I remember the sick-to-my-stomach, terrifying feeling that came with it. A very different experience than when I publish today. Here’s why—now I have a critique group, author friends who beta read, and a whole ARC team to give me feedback before I publish. All those eyes on my book help strengthen it and help me gauge my readers’ experience. With my first novel, Everett, I was working with a small publisher. Only the publisher and my editor had read the book before it went out into the world. It wasn’t until publication day that it hit me—what have I done? I started second-guessing scenes from the book, specifically the really dark, murderous ones, and all I could think was…Oh, no! Did I really put this out there for anyone to read? I didn’t know what people were going to think, and I worried people who knew me would never look at me the same again. And probably they don’t…LOL.

Brett: As an established author, I know you’ve probably had your fair share of difficulties to navigate over the years. Could you share with us some of the obstacles you’ve faced in your journey to becoming a best-selling author?

Jenifer: My author stress comes from marketing or publishing issues. One incident stands out above the others. Over the course of a few weeks, one of my ebook distributors delivered the wrong digital book file to about 300 people. I discovered that when bad reviews started coming in: “this wasn’t the book I ordered.” The distributor can “push out” an updated file to everyone who ever bought or downloaded the book. They did that for me almost immediately. Unfortunately, they sent out the wrong file again, making the matter much worse because the second time, over 60k people got their copy of Everett replaced with my newest release. It took weeks and dozens of phone calls to fix the issue, with me starting at the beginning and explaining everything each time. I was super stressed about the comments coming in through my website but was helpless to fix the problem myself. Writing about it now, of course I know there are far, far worse things that could happen, but still, I think the ordeal took a few months off my life.

Brett: Let’s talk about something that most authors don’t want to talk about: BAD REVIEWS. As you know, no matter how famous and well-regarded an author is, none are immune from bad reviews. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone has over two hundred one-star reviews, which is minor in the grand scheme of the tens of thousands of five-star reviews. Still, bad reviews are painful to an author. How did you react to your very first bad reviews early in your career? How do you handle them now that you’re a more established and well-known author with a following? Do you “sneak a peek” at your reviews on occasion or do you just ignore them?

Jenifer: I don’t let reviews bother me much because no author can make every reader happy. I do sneak a peek at them occasionally, as you said, particularly if I get a negative one. I hold my breath, bracing myself for a blow before reading each one. A few make me laugh out loud because it’s amazing how mean and grumpy some people can be. One review that will always stick with me was written by a person who did not read my book, which is pretty much the worst and happens to all authors. She called it propaganda and claimed my message was entirely the opposite of what I intended. The best course of action is to ignore reviews like that and hope no one sees or believes them, but that can be challenging sometimes. That review is a few years old, and I cannot seem to erase it from my mind.

Brett: I’d also like to ask you about your book When They Find Us, which was the first book of yours that I ever read (it’s also an Amazon Best-Selling book). I love books about catastrophes, natural disasters, and the-world’s-going-to-end-if someone-doesn’t-save-the-day type books. I think I saw this book for the first time on one of the many discount ebook sites that I subscribe to and promote my books on as well. That it was a novel about a plane crash instantly drew me, so I had to read it. Tell us your inspiration for writing a novel on this subject and the research you had to perform.

Jenifer: I do a lot of research for all my books, usually medical, but I did a colossal amount to write When They Find Us. The only commercial flight that has ever “disappeared” in modern history is Malaysian Flight 370, so I read everything I could about that crash and the surrounding theories, as well as reading about every plane crash and rescue operation that occurred within the last thirty or so years. I studied the changes made to commercial jets post 9-11 and how those engineering advances could advance my story. I also did lots of research on the climate in Greenland. I consulted several Air Force pilots and commercial pilots and sent chapters back and forth to them. They were incredibly helpful, enabling me to get the pilot and control tower lingo accurate, or at least much closer to realistic than it otherwise would be. I had a lot to learn to write that novel!

Brett: This is a nearly impossible question to ask an author because our books are our blood, sweat, and tears, so forgive me in advance. Of all the books you’ve written, can you tell us the favorites you’ve written, and why?

Jenifer: When They Find Us was probably my favorite to write. I absolutely love books and movies with scenarios that test a character’s mental and physical limits and push them to the edge, where they are very afraid and must be courageous despite that fear. It’s those moments that reveal the best and the worst in our characters. So that’s what I tried to create with When They Find Us and readers seem to really enjoy it.

I have so much fun writing the Brooke Walton books. Brooke is the protagonist and also my darkest, most disturbing and ambitious character. A true psychopath. Getting inside her head to write those books is fascinating and chilling, particularly when other characters get in the way of what she wants to achieve. The Intern is the third book in that series. I knew Brooke really well by then and she seemed to write that story for me.

Brett: The Groom Went Missing is your most recent release in the Victoria Heslin Series. Tell us a bit about that book.

Jenifer: The title states the central question, and here’s the hook: “Everything is in place for a lavish wedding, except the groom. Second thoughts…or something more sinister?”  I want readers glued to the pages trying to piece the subtle clues together, along with my FBI agent Victoria, and enjoying the journey of figuring it out.

https://www.amazon.com/Groom-Missing-Agent-Victoria-Heslin-ebook/dp/B09M643686

Brett: About how long does it take you to write one novel?

Jenifer: I’ve been publishing two books a year for several years now, so it must take me about six months to write a novel. It’s hard to know for sure because sometimes a novel is finished but set aside for months because I’m waiting on editing or the audio narration. I work on my current manuscript five days a week, but only manage to write or rewrite for a few hours at most. The rest of the workday is related to marketing and publishing tasks and updates, checking sales channels, something I do way too often, as well as checking email, Facebook ads, and my Apple news feed, throwing in a load of laundry, etc.  One of my goals is to do a much better job with focused writing time.

Brett: Writing a novel is something that we authors grow into and perfect the more we write. Think back to the very first book you wrote, then to the last book you wrote. Tell us something you didn’t know about writing in the beginning that has become valuable knowledge to you and has made you a better writer thirteen novels later.

Jenifer: There is so much I didn’t know when I started, and I’m sure there is still so much I have yet to learn. The learning process probably never ends, which is good. One thing about finalizing a manuscript that blows my mind is how challenging it is (for me at least) to get rid of all the tiny errors. I do a lot of rewriting and editing, which introduces all those little errors. I have many sets of eyes to help me get rid of them: a critique group for draft chapters, Prowriter, an editor, beta readers, several proofreaders, ARC readers, and I have Microsoft word read my manuscript to me at least once (a VERY tedious process listening to it in a monotone voice.) And still, tiny errors persist—a missing end quote here, a typo there—hiding in plain sight. So, anyone who thinks a book can be error free after one proof is either delusional or has an incredible gift that I will never, ever have.

Brett: Think back over all the books you’ve written. You’ve created many characters. Which would you not get along with in real life? Which one would be a friend you’d most like to have?

Jenifer: The friend question is an easy one to answer. Victoria Heslin, an FBI special agent. She and I are both introverts (not shy but need alone time to recharge) who are crazy about animals. Like me, she likes nothing more than a long hike in the cool mountains with her dogs. She’s survived some harrowing investigations because of her own strength and grit, and I greatly admire her courage. She’s also generous with her wealth. I would love to be her close friend in real life. Hopefully she’d invite me to one of her family’s houses with giant fenced yards and we could sit on her back patio in the shade while our greyhounds raced around together. I’d happily stay in her guest wing and take care of her animals while she’s away working an investigation.

Brett: When you start writing a book, do you always know the title before you begin writing? Or have there been times when the title didn’t emerge until later in the writing process?

Jenifer: I start with a mystery plot line and the title comes much, much later. As I write, I come up with possible titles and place them at the top of my manuscript. I look at them almost daily, adding new ones, eliminating others, hoping one will evolve or eventually emerge as the clear winner. If that doesn’t happen, I solicit ideas on my Facebook pages.

The only time I came up with a title from the very beginning was with Only Wrong Once, the first book in the FBI & CDC medical thriller series. I got the idea from a speech Condoleeza Rice gave to the 911 Commission. She said, “To inflict devastation on a massive scale, the terrorists only have to succeed once. And we know that they are trying every day.” In Only Wrong Once, because of one missed step in the Department of Homeland Security, the terrorists succeed, introducing a lethal virus and pushing the U.S. toward a national epidemic. I should point out that Only Wrong Once was written a few years before Covid-19 emerged. Anyway, that is my most clever, poignant title and I love it.

Brett: After completing a novel how long does it take before you launch into the next one?

Jenifer: Before I finish a novel, I’ve got the next one somewhat outlined at least in concept, so I can dive into it right away. I’m usually working on the new one while the last one is being edited. I guess I’ve been doing this long enough now that I would feel a little lost without a novel in progress.

Brett: If I were to drive to your home and have dinner with the Ruff family, what would be on the menu?

Jenifer: This is a funny question for me. I don’t think you will ever meet anyone who has less interest in preparing food. I mostly make salads. And cooking for me is grilled cheese. I only use our ovens to heat frozen pizzas from Trader Joe’s. However…like FBI Agent Victoria Heslin in my Victoria series, I have a pack of greyhounds and I do cook for them, and I’m so good at it! Several times a week, I have two crock pots going. The primary ingredients are lean turkey or lean ground beef with organic meats. I add oatmeal or quinoa or brown rice, and then lots of different vegetables and beans and flax and chia and just about everything you can imagine that is super healthy. The best part is that they act like every meal is the best meal on the planet, no matter what, so it’s worth all the trouble. If we ate like my dogs, exactly what we needed and nothing we didn’t, I promise we would all feel like a million bucks.

Brett: What’s your favorite hobby/activity for the rare occasions you’re not writing?

Jenifer: Hiking, barre classes, any form of exercise. I’ve loved working out for my entire life and not a day goes by without me doing some form of movement that makes me at least a little tired and sweaty.

Brett: What’s your favorite format when you have time to sit down with a book (ebook, physical book, audiobook?)

Jenifer: Ebook! Before digital, I used to vacation with a suitcase filled with books—twenty or more pounds of novels to make sure I never ran out of reading material. I barely had room for my clothes. Ebooks have made my life so much easier. You need a book…you’ve instantly got one. And I like to listen to audiobooks when I clean, except then I never want to run the vacuum.

Brett: I know authors don’t like talking about their work before it’s completed but give us ONE word to best describe the novel you’re working on now.

Jenifer: I’m working on Vanished on Vacation, book 6 in the Agent Victoria Heslin series. These are standalone mystery thrillers featuring special agent Victoria. One word…I’m going to go with: courage.

Brett: Jenifer, thank you so much for being a guest on my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Is there a date you can give us when your next novel will be published?

Jenifer: Thank you so much for having me! You ask interesting, thoughtful questions!

Book 5 in the Agent Victoria series, The Groom Went Missing, just released May 2nd, 2022, and Vanished On Vacation, book 6 in that same series, is available for preorder now and releasing in October of 2022.

For readers interested in contacting Jenifer Ruff, visit her website at: https://jenruff.com/index.html

If you’re interested in picking up a Jenifer Ruff novel:

THE NUMBERS KILLER: (Book 1 in Agent Victoria series): https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Killer-Victoria-Heslin-Thriller-ebook/dp/B07SFG39WTONLY WRONG ONCE: (Book 1 in FBI & CDC Thriller series): https://www.amazon.com/Only-Wrong-Once-Suspense-Thriller-ebook/dp/B075XN3QHDPre-Order Vanished on Vacation, Available October 7, 2022. https://www.amazon.com/Vanished-Vacation-Agent-Victoria-Heslin-ebook/dp/B09YJ79K6X

If you’d like to follow Jenifer on Social Media, click the links below:

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/authorjruff

BOOKBUB: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jenifer-ruff

AMAZON AUTHOR PROFILE: https://www.amazon.com/Jenifer-Ruff/e/B00NFZQOLQ

Finally, if you’re interested in Brett’s books: https://www.amazon.com/Brett-Nelson/e/B08D2C1YSC

Written by: Brett Nelson, May 20, 2022

Photo courtesy of Lum3n – pexels.com

Dear Readers – Thank you for coming back for the May 2022 installment of AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT.

I’ve had a busy and eventful month since my last blog. One thing I haven’t written about yet is that my book, WHEN RAINDROPS FALL, hit #4 on the Amazon Best-Seller list in late February and early March. It’s not nearly as impressive as making the New York Times or USA Today best-selling lists, but as they say, every journey begins with a small step.

It was my first time to witness one of my humble little ebooks downloaded on Amazon more than 10,000 times in less than a week, and it was very exciting for me.

I had stacked book promotions through several discount ebook sites I use. I don’t usually check book sales every day, but I knew I had several promotions starting that day, so I logged on that Tuesday about noon to check my sales and my eyes nearly popped out of my head to see over a thousand sales already.

My all-time high for a book promotion day was about a hundred, so to see a thousand sales just before lunch…needless to say, I did several doubletakes to make sure I wasn’t imagining things.

I immediately jumped on the phone and called my mom. “Mom, I’m #133 on the Amazon Best-Seller list!” I screamed.

Throughout the day, I kept my closest friends and family in the loop with my book’s journey up the chart.

“I’m #84!”

“I’m #73!

“#55!”

“#36!”

I’m sure every time they got a text from me, their eyes rolled a little further back into their heads…LOL But, they love me and were good sports about it.

I told my friend Sharon, “I’m on the Amazon Top 30, which is amazing! But, how cool would it be to make the top 10!”

Never thinking it possible, we watched as it fell to #23, then to #19, then to #13.

I was excited and a train-wreck all at the same time.

My friend Sharon began emailing all her friends and family, asking them to go to Amazon and buy the book so I could hopefully make it to the top 10 on Amazon. I also took to Facebook, and several of my friends shared my post and asked THEIR friends to buy my book as well.

Since I was so close to #10, I emailed a couple of ebook promoters that I frequently use, explained the situation, and begged them (yes…I’m not too terribly ashamed to say that I actually begged them) to include my book on their next day email blasts, which they were happy to do. They were instrumental in helping my book land at #4. (A HUGE shoutout to Book Raid and The Fussy Librarian—without their willingness to slip in a promotion with literally no notice, I would never have made it to the Amazon Top 5.)

Next time, I’ve got the #1 slot in my focus. After that, I’m coming after the New York Times and USA Today! (Gotta have goals, right?)

Speaking of the New York Times and USA Today Best-Seller lists, I’m excited to introduce you to today’s AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT.

Kristen Middleton is a New York Times, a USA Today, and an Amazon Best-Selling author. With more than forty published books, she is a well-known and formidable author in the publishing industry. She also writes under the pen names Cassie Alexandra and K.L. Middleton.

She writes many different genres, including Horror, Fantasy, Romance, and Mystery/Thriller, so no matter what you like to read, chances are Kristen writes in your favorite genre.

She, her husband, and her two daughters live in the Midwest. She enjoys traveling, reading, cooking, and spending time with family, and she raises money to help locate missing and exploited children.

Brett: Kristen—First of all, thank you for being a guest on my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT blog! I’m excited to give my readers the opportunity to get to know you better. Let’s start by going back a few years to before you were a professional author. As a child, were you an avid reader? If so, what childhood books formed your love for reading?

Kristen:  Thanks for having me, Brett! Yes, I was always an avid reader. We lived on a hobby farm when I was young, and there weren’t many other kids around, so I started reading and developed a passion for it. My mother and grandmother were also bookworms and would trade each other bags filled with paperbacks. Bored, I started reading them myself, selecting mostly the scary ones and thrillers. I grew up loving Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and John Sanford, along with so many others.

Brett: Tell us about the first time you decided to try and write something. Was a novel your first attempt at writing, or did you start smaller and work your way up to full-length novels?

Kristen: When I was around twenty, I received a typewriter as a gift and began trying to put a “novel” together. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far. I was so obsessed with trying to make every sentence perfect the first time around that I soon gave up thinking it was just too much work. I also thought I was being foolish in thinking anyone would enjoy reading something I wrote.

Brett: Putting a novel out into the world, especially for the first time, can be scary, because even though it’s fiction, there’s still a little of the author tucked away in there. Wade through your memories and tell us about the first novel you ever published. How did you feel when you realized your first attempt at writing was out there for anyone in the world to pick up and read?

Kristen: That is so true about it being scary, and it seems like it was just yesterday that I hit that PUBLISH button on Amazon. It all began in 2011, when I received a Kindle for Christmas. I didn’t have much money and started reading free books written by self-published authors. Intrigued, and inspired by their work, I decided to give writing another go. This time, instead of agonizing over every line that I wrote, I decided to just start writing the story happening in my head and to not do any edits until I was finished. This was a game-changer for me, and I was able to complete my first book, ZOMBIE GAMES (Origins), in early 2012. This was the first book in my zombie series, which I’d originally meant to write as one complete novel. There was so much more to write, however, and so I decided to go the series route. I then told my friend about it and she asked to read the manuscript. Nervous, I let her read it and can still remember the text she sent me about how much she’d enjoyed it. I thought she was just being nice, but it was still very encouraging and a couple days later, I created a cover and uploaded the book to Amazon. After it was published, I waited nervously for the bad reviews to come in and was shocked that people were not only downloading my $.99 book but enjoying the story. I couldn’t believe it when I was seeing more good reviews than bad.

Brett: When it comes to novel writing, are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?” Do you plot your novels before writing them, or do you just jump in and figure it out as you go along?

Kristen: I am more of a pantser. Even if I plot something out, it always changes. That’s probably why I have so many series books, I just keep going and going.

Brett: As an established author, I know you’ve probably had your fair share of difficulties to navigate over the years. Could you share with us some of the obstacles you’ve faced in your journey to becoming a best-selling author?

Kristen: Standing out on Amazon and getting readers to download my books, which is obviously a very common obstacle, unless you’re Stephen King or James Patterson. Advertising was always my go-to and I spent hours and money researching what helped. Unfortunately, what worked five years ago, doesn’t always work the same today. Both Facebook and Amazon are always changing the rules and now it’s becoming so expensive to advertise, you really need to know what you’re doing and keep testing. When I became a bestseller, I was fortunate enough to write what was popular and have support from other authors who helped guide me. These days, marketing is so much more challenging, especially if you’re not constantly pushing out fresh books. Even if you write an epic story that deserves to be a bestseller, you face so many challenges getting your book in front of people.

Brett: In the same vein, let’s talk about something that all authors dread but will inevitably face: BAD REVIEWS. As you know, no matter how famous and well-regarded an author is, none are immune from bad reviews. Overly harsh reviews tend to plunge me into the depths of despair for the first few days after I see one, then I snap out of it and move on. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you’ve received bad reviews. How did you react to your very first bad reviews early in your career? How do you handle them now that you’re a more established and well-known author with a massive following? Do you “sneak a peek” at your reviews on occasion, or do you just ignore them?

Kristen: Yeah, I used to get pretty ill myself but have now made it a point not to read them. Actually, let me take that back – I will take a quick peek at the first five or so and then stay away. People have different tastes and I definitely know I’m not going to please everyone. What I don’t read, won’t hurt me. I only wish more people would take the time to review the books they’ve enjoyed. I do get it that we’re all busy and these things slip our minds, unless you’ve read something horrible and you want to voice an opinion. I’m guilty myself of taking more time to review things that have irritated me, like bad service or bad products that I’ve received through Amazon.

Brett: This is a nearly impossible question to ask an author because our books are our blood, sweat, and tears, so forgive me in advance. Of all the books you’ve written, can you tell us the top three all-time favorites you’ve written, and why?

Kristen: I love my Zombie Games series. They consist of five books and I based the characters off my family and friends. They will always hold a special place in my heart.

Brett: You are a very diverse author in that you publish in several genres, including Horror and Fantasy, Romance, and Mystery/Thrillers. Most author conferences I’ve attended basically tell authors to, “pick a lane and stay in it.” As an author, I can say that is horribly boring advice (ha!) It seems, though, that you’ve defied that advice and excelled at what you’ve accomplished. Talk to us about why you chose to write in so many varying genres rather than “staying in one lane.”

Kristen: I am an avid reader of many different genres and sometimes stories just hit me, and I go with it. I do think that if I had stayed with one genre the profits would have been better, but I tend to go where my inspiration leads me. I also believe that if you’re writing strictly for money, you have a higher chance of getting writer’s block and putting out stories that you’re not happy with.

Brett: From what I can determine, DRAGON’S BLOOD is your most recent release. Tell us a little about that book.

Kristen: That’s actually a book I’d published previously, called BLOOD OF BREKKON. I’d been involved in a multi-author series created by another author and our contracts ended. We were able to use the stories after this but I had to make some major changes to the background and the main plot.

Brett: Now, let’s talk about your romance books for a few minutes. What style would best characterize your romance novels?

Kristen: Most of my romance novels are steamy (especially my biker series under Cassie Alexandra). When I decided to go this route, it was from advice from some of my successful author friends.  I am changing gears however, and trying to write small-town, clean romance. I have one in particular that I’ve been writing. Unfortunately, it’s taking me longer because admittedly, I get bored writing romance without adding a killer, psychic, or weird plot twist.

Brett: You are a New York Times and USA Today Best-Selling author. That is an amazing feat for any author, especially an Indy author. I’d love to hear a little more about that. I know there are criteria authors must meet to make one of these lists, but how did you find out that you were included on these best-seller lists? What was your first book to become a best-seller? How did you celebrate when you found out you were a best-seller for the very first time?

Kristen: I actually joined a group of authors in a science fiction anthology called Dark Humanity and we were lucky enough to make the NY Times and USA Today Bestseller list in February of 2017.  Within the next year, my biker series hit the USA Today Bestseller list and I was in another boxed set called Bad Boys Unboxed (Tangled Mess was included in that). It did take a lot of advertising and push to get there with the NY Times list. I am more proud of my biker series hitting the USA Today list because I did that all on my own.

Brett: Now, let’s discuss my favorite genre: Mystery/Thriller. I recently read one of your novels for the first time, FORGET ME NOT, and I loved it, which is why I knew I had to have you as a guest on my blog. FORGET ME NOT—Book One in your Summit Lake thriller series—is a story of every mother’s nightmare. A deranged person targets a single mom through cryptic notes and strange gifts left on her doorstep. What was your inspiration in creating such a fascinating story?

Kristen: I’m so happy you enjoyed it and thank you so much for the compliment! I love this genre myself. I’m a horror and thriller fanatic and always wanted to write a psycho killer type of book. That is another story that just came to me one day and I decided to go with it.

Brett: Of all the books you’ve written, is there one that stands out as the most difficult one to write, either emotionally or technically, etc? Why?

Kristen: Definitely, LOOKING FOR LAINEY, which is a story about human trafficking, was by far the hardest. I found myself sick to my stomach writing the story as it played in my head. My daughters were fairly young at the time and so it hit really hard as I was doing my research and creating the book as to how vulnerable our young people are. When my oldest daughter was in her first year of college, she recalled a day she was sitting in a coffee shop working on homework, and suddenly realized some guy was taking pictures of her. This was in Duluth, MN, and I’ve heard that human trafficking is bad there. She left right away and went back to her dorm but was too skittish to ever go back. Fortunately, she’s switched colleges and is closer to home now. Still, our young people aren’t safe anywhere and it’s made me a little paranoid since having children.

https://www.amazon.com/Looking-Lainey-Carissa-Jones-Mystery-ebook/dp/B078NJTQG7

Brett: About how long does it take you to write one novel?

Kristen: I stopped writing fulltime, so it’s taking me about six months now to write a novel.

Brett: Think back over all the books you’ve written—and there are plenty. You’ve written hundreds if not thousands of characters. Which character would you not get along with in real life? Which one would be a friend you’d most like to have?

Kristen: I think there is part of me in every main character, so I imagine that I’d have a good group of friends. The one person I really enjoyed writing, however, was Kristie from Zombie Games. She’s a riot and is actually based off of a real friend with a similar sense of humor.

Brett: When you start writing a book, do you always know the title before you begin writing? Or have there been times when the title didn’t emerge until later in the writing process?

Kristen: Actually, I usually do know the title. Many times, I have a cover created right away and then keep looking at it to inspire me.

Brett: Do you ever finish a book and worry that you’ll never be able to write another one?

Kristen: Yeah, sometimes a book is very exhausting to write and I am glad it’s over. But then weeks go by and I just have to write another one. I guess genre hopping definitely helps. I can’t write the same genre back-to-back.

Brett: After completing a novel, how long does it take before you launch into the next one?

Kristen: In the beginning, I was writing them back to back, maybe taking a week off. Now it takes me a couple months to get into the groove again.

Brett: Give us a description of your working space. Is there anything you must have to flow in the creative process? When you take a minute to look out the nearest window, what do you see?

Kristen: I have an office with a great view of our cul-de-sac. When I’m actually writing, I need silence so that I can concentrate on the movie playing in my head. I can’t have music, which I feel a little sad about, or many distractions. I get into this fugue state and just type what’s happening in my brain.

Brett: Let’s pretend Hollywood just called and they want to make a blockbuster movie of ONE of your books, and you must choose which book. Which would it be? You also get to be the Casting Director—who plays the main protagonist and the main antagonist?

Kristen: ZOMBIE GAMES, my favorite series. Cassie is the heroine and is only seventeen. I actually would love Zendaya to play the main character. She is such a wonderful actress and can be strong, fierce, and yet vulnerable at the same time.

Brett: Who is your current favorite author(s)? What book are you reading?

Kristen: It depends on my mood, honestly. I love Stephen King, but I also love Kristin Hannah, who writes tear-jerking romances. I’m not currently reading anything, which might be why I haven’t been writing lately. I need to get on that.

Brett: I remember the first time I cried when writing a particularly emotional scene in my novel, A CHRISTMAS TO LIVE FOR. I wasn’t expecting that to happen, and it took me by surprise. Has this happened to you? If so, can you describe which book and scene that was?

Kristen: I would say when I wrote my ZOMBIE GAMES book, some of my favorite people died and I don’t want to give away a spoiler, but I had readers mad at me for that…

Brett: If you could have lunch with another author, living or dead, who would that be?

Kristen: Honestly, Theresa Caputo. She’s a medium and has written some interesting books about talking to the dead. Plus, I used to watch her show. I find myself crying a lot when I sit down to watch an episode.

Brett: If I were to drive to your home and have dinner with the Middleton family, what would be on the menu?

Kristen:  We’d grill something and hopefully eat outside.

Brett: If you could spend an entire weekend doing nothing but bingeing your favorite television shows, what would you watch?

Kristen: I would love to binge on Game of Thrones all over again. Right now, I’m watching Brittania, Black Summer, Euphoria, The Witcher, and Boba Fett.

Brett: What’s your favorite hobby/activity for the rare occasions you’re not writing?

Kristen: Reading, swimming, and taking hikes.

Brett: What’s your favorite format when you have time to sit down with a book (ebook, physical book, audiobook?)

Kristen: Ebook.

Brett: Have you ever read someone else’s novel and left thinking, “I could have written that better…”

Kristen: If the ending left me feeling ‘unfulfilled’, I will sometimes feel like that. I think as authors we all have a tendency to be more critical and find ourselves saying, “Now, what they should have done…” But, I generally don’t do it very often with most books I’ve read.  I find myself getting frustrated with movie endings these days more than anything, however. I’m always like, really? This is the ending? Come on!

Brett: I know authors don’t like talking about their work before it’s completed but give us ONE word to best describe the novel you’re working on now.

Kristen: Different. I’m writing SUMMERS AT HUGO BAY, and it’s more of a drama about a group of women who come together every year to reminisce and celebrate a friend they lost back in high school. Of course, there will be some mystery as to why she died and other secrets the friends eventually find out about.

Brett: Kristen, thank you so much for being a guest on my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Is there a date you can give us when your next novel will publish?

Kristen: I am hoping that it will be out by the summer (SUMMER AT HUGO BAY). Thanks so much for having me as a guest. I love meeting new author friends and I actually look forward to reading some of your books as well!

For readers interested in contacting Kristen Middleton, visit her website at: http://www.kristenmiddleton.com/home.html

Kristen enjoys hearing from her readers, so if you like to contact her, her email address is: kristenmiddletonauthor@yahoo.com.

If you’re interested in picking up a Kristen Middleton novel:

Cover Image: Courtesy of Kristen Middleton

FORGET ME NOT: Book 1 in Summit Lake Thriller series: https://www.amazon.com/Forget-Thrilling-Suspense-Summit-Thriller-ebook/dp/B07G56WX57

If you’d like to delve into one of her romance books written as K.L. Middleton/Cassie Alexandra:

THE BURN: https://www.amazon.com/Burn-School-Bully-Romance-Diamond-ebook/dp/B08394XYFR

THE CHASE : https://www.amazon.com/Chase-School-Bully-Romance-Diamond-ebook/dp/B08393SQDK

If Horror/Fantasy is more up your alley:

ENCHANTED SECRETS: https://www.amazon.com/Enchanted-Secrets-Witches-Bayport-Book-ebook/dp/B008LZROC8

VENOM: https://www.amazon.com/Venom-Vampire-Romance-Book-One-ebook/dp/B00MRACI3S

If you’d like to follow Kristen Middleton on social media, you can find her by clicking on these links:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/KristenMiddletonAuthor/

Instagram –  https://www.instagram.com/kristenmiddleton_author/?hl=en

Tik Tok – https://www.tiktok.com/@kristenmiddleton__

Finally, if you want to check out Brett Nelson’s books: https://www.amazon.com/Brett-Nelson/e/B08D2C1YSC

by Brett Nelson – 4/22/22

Photo Courtesy of Jessica Lewis Creative – Pexels

Dear Readers. Thank you for swinging by my website to catch up on this month’s AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT.

For those of us in the southern states, it would seem as though winter has released her grasp and we’re headed into the torturous and unyielding heat and humidity of summer. I wish I was one of those people who eagerly anticipates the spring and summer months, but I’m not. I love cold weather and thick sweaters, not shorts and flip flops.

To me, spring and summer represent an increase in seasonal allergies, being drenched with sweat the minute you walk out the door, and…the worst of all…LAWN MOWING SEASON. *Two thumbs down* Honestly, there’s nothing about spring and summer that I enjoy, and I already look forward to the return of nippy fall air and the holidays.

Last month, I had the opportunity to go into a local high school and visit with students at an English and Composition Literacy event. Since public speaking isn’t within the realm of my comfort zone, I almost didn’t accept the invitation, but I decided that conquering my discomforts was a better choice, so I accepted, and I’m so glad I did.

Numerous students stopped by my table to visit with me about my writing career and the steps it takes to become a published author. While I’m hardly an expert on authoring (I’m still learning with every book I publish!), I was happy to share the tidbits of my knowledge with the younger generation.

As an Indie author, I was able to discuss the wide range of tasks that one must accomplish to become a published author, from: writing the book, editing the book, finding professional editors, finding professional cover designers, finding professional book and ebook formatters, and finally marketing.

With four novels under my belt, I can now say with absolute assurance that no one ever told me that writing the book would be the easiest part of being an author. While the creative aspect of writing has it’s own unique challenges and hurdles, the most challenging part, by a wide margin, at least for me, is figuring out how to market my books so that a broader audience can find out that I and my books exist.

There have been many times through the years that I wished I had an author mentor to guide me along the way, to tell me what the next steps in the process are, and how to troubleshoot when things don’t happen the way I want them to happen. For the most part, though, I’ve managed–one way or another–to figure it out on my own. I can also thank the many numerous online author conferences I’ve been blessed to attend, where I gathered no small amount of publishing help in a myriad of areas, some I didn’t even know I needed.

For those of you who like to read, do me a favor. Between your favorite best-seller author reads, pick up an occasional book by an unknown Indie author. And when you do, keep in mind that Indie authors do everything themselves, unlike traditionally published authors who have the luxury of publishing companies to do all the grunt work for them.

Most of us Indie’s try our hardest to churn out the best work that we (and our finances) can afford, so when you read an Indie author, also keep this in mind, especially when reviewing an Indie’s work: The majority of Indie authors don’t have access to the fancy editors that your favorite New York Times Best-Selling author has. We don’t have access to their in-house cover designers and formatters.

By all means, give an honest review when you review us, but I also ask that you be gentle, because a lot of us still struggle to find the perfect book editors who can help shape our work into something better and more enjoyable for our readers, and the cover designers who can create just the right cover that will reach out and grab our audience and entice them to read it.

In interviewing authors on this blog, one conversation I’ve had with many of them over and over is that, like me, they’re often still trying to find just the right book editors, just the right cover designers, just the right book formatters, that can help their work shine just as brightly as the latest best-seller at Barnes & Noble. Trust me, before the professional editors get their hands on your favorite author’s books, their manuscript would probably make you cringe and say, “what the heck happened here?”

Since we Indie’s don’t have fancy suits in a high rise on 5th Avenue in New York City to do our bidding, we have to keep trying until we find “the one editor”, “the one designer,” and “the one formatter.” It almost always takes several books to find the right people to become our writing team, because we don’t know until we’ve spent thousands of dollars that the editor we hired didn’t know as much as they led us to believe they did.

Since we’re on the topic of Indie authors, that leads me to April’s AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT.

YA author (Young Adult) Kayvion Lewis lives in Louisiana and is an orange belt in Kung Fu. To date, she has written one book entitled The Half Class.

Brett: Kayvion, thank you for taking the time to visit with us today. Talk to us a little about your childhood–were you an avid reader as a child? If so, who were your favorite childhood authors?

Kayvion: Avid reader…ah, I wouldn’t take it that far. I loved consuming stories in all forms since I was a kid, and would oscillate between only reading books for months to only watching movies, to only watching TV shows, and so on. Thinking back on my book phases, my favorite author would probably be Kiera Cass. I started reading The Selection Series when I was thirteen, and she was the first author of whom I wanted to read everything she’d written.

Brett: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Kayvion: Not an author, I’ll tell you that. I had my heart set on the vague idea of being an adventurer. After I watched Temple of Doom for the first time, I figured there had to be some job out there that would pay me to travel the world, picking fights with sinister secret societies and finessing my way out of life-threatening situations. (Still looking for that dream job, but in the meantime, I’ve taken to writing fictional adventures instead.)

Brett: At what age did you decide writing novels was something you wanted try? Was a novel your first attempt at writing, or did you start smaller and work your way up to full-length novels?

Kayvion: I was 19 when I got slapped in the face with the idea of being a writer, and immediately jumped headfirst into writing a full-length novel. I finished that first book a month and a half later and I was hooked on storytelling.

Brett: Your debut novel is entitled “The Half Class.” Putting a novel out into the world, especially for the first time, can be very scary, because even though it’s fiction, there’s still pieces of you in the story. How did it feel to realize your first attempt at writing was out there for anyone in the world to pick up and read and *cringe* judge and even criticize?

Kayvion: Luckily, I had a bit of a build up to my novel being fully out there. First it was just mine, then my CPs then it had to go through my editors and early reviewers and all that, so it was more like wading into the pond of exposure rather than diving into the deep end. As for criticism, at the end of the day I create my stories for me, so all other opinions are secondary to mine. I don’t stress too much about other people not liking it. It does give me a bead of joy to know that my book might have brought entertainment and joy to a reader, however.

Brett: Whether a book is “good” or “not” is obviously subjective—but let’s be honest, readers can sometimes be brutal in their expression of disdain toward our hard work, and all authors, even famous ones, get bad reviews. When the inevitable happens and you get a bad review, how will you handle it?

Kayvion: How will I handle it? I think you mean how did I. Nothing’s for everyone. I never expect anyone who picks up my book to like it. For the most part, I avoid goodreads and other review sites completely. Reviews are for readers, not writers anyway. Whether they’re good or bad, I typically don’t want to see them.

Brett: When it comes to novel writing, are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?” In other words, do you plot your novels before writing them, or do you jump in and figure it out as you go along?

Kayvion: Something more like a plantser? I usually write my first couple of chapters without anything, then draw up a super thin outline and use that to guide the rest of the way. The “outline” usually changes about halfway through drafting, when I start veering in new directions.

Brett: As I mentioned above, “The Half Class” is your debut novel. For readers who haven’t read the book, give us a synopsis of the key elements of your story.

Kayvion: Hmmmm, well, to break it down to a few fragments: Girl lives in apartheid fantasy nation. Girl has meet-cute with prince of said nation. Rebellion uses girl as spy. Girl might be falling in love with prince. Drama ensues.

Picture courtesy of Breno Cardoso – Pexels.com

Brett: What was your inspiration for writing “The Half Class?”

Kayvion: A long held love of fantasy romances, and a desire to see more girls like me—biracial girls—in those stories.

Brett: Writing a novel can be a difficult endeavor, especially when writing your first one. Was this novel difficult to write, either emotionally or technically, etc? Why?

Kayvion: Emotionally? Eh, there were a few scenes that made me uncomfortable to write and required digging deep into my own insecurities, but those scenes weren’t necessarily difficult to write. I’d say challenging instead.

On a technical level, oh baby, this book was a ride. I had to rewrite the entire thing from scratch before it became the version that my publisher signed. So far, it’s the only book I’ve had to completely overhaul like that.

Brett: How long did it take you to write “The Half Class?”

Kayvion: The first version took a month and a week to write, then weeks more to revise. The complete rewrite took another month and even more weeks to revise. All and all, from start to finished, it took about four months to get the book from the first word to query-ready.

Brett: In this novel, which character(s) would you not get along with in real life? Which one would be a friend you wish you had in real life?

Kayvion: Wanna know a secret? I don’t really like anyone in The Half-Class. Most of the characters are so…not people I’d want to be friends with. The only character I think I’d vibe with in real life is Albo (a side character) but he’s so prickly, I don’t think he’d want to hang out with me.

Brett: When you began writing your book, did you know the title before you began writing, or did the title emerge later in the writing process?

Kayvion: My first version had a filler title, which was so lame I won’t even repeat it here, but when I began my re-write, I knew the title would be The Half-Class.

Brett: Now that you’ve published your first novel, do you have ideas for a second one? If so, will it be a sequel or a stand-alone novel?

Kayvion: In the world of The Half-Class, I signed with my publisher for a trilogy, so there will be two sequel books. I also signed with my superstar agent last year, and we’re getting ready to go on submission with a YA thriller, completely unrelated to The Half-Class and its world.

Brett: As a new author, what is something that surprised you about the writing/publishing process?

Kayvion: About the publishing world, just how behind everyone constantly is. Maybe it’s because I started in the publishing world well into the pandemic, but everyone I’ve interacted with is always behind schedule, lol.

Brett: What was the most enjoyable aspect of writing your novel? What did you least enjoy?

Kayvion: The whole experience of writing the very first draft of this book was one of the most charming months of my life. I was home from school for the summer, and wasn’t working at the time, so my whole life was staying up late and writing until dawn, watching the sunrise, then sleeping in just to get up and write some more. Rewriting the book just so happened to coincide with my starting a new job and school, so it was a much more time-strained, less free-flowing experience than the first time.

Brett: Given that you’ve accomplished the exciting feat of publishing your first novel, what advice would you give to young authors aspiring to write their first novel?

Kayvion: It’s kind of a meme now, but JUST DO IT. Don’t overthink things, don’t get caught up planning out tiny details about your characters and world. Just get words on the page and add more every day. No excuses. Most people will never start writing that book. Even fewer will finish. Rarer still is the person who finds the discipline to edit and then start all over with a new book. If you want to be in this industry you’ve got to be tenacious. Just do it, and just keep going, no matter what.

Brett: What do you hope your readers will take away from reading The Half Class?

Kayvion: I’d love to get readers asking questions about morality. Where is the grey area? And should some things be black and white? I want to leave readers thinking critically, about my characters, the world they have to live in, and what that might mean for the real world too.

Brett: Give your readers a description of your working space. Is there anything you must have to flow in the creative process? When you take a minute to look out the nearest window, what do you see?

Kayvion: Space, singular? I kinda work all over the place. Libraries, museums, boat launches, abandoned baseball fields, my friends’ backyards, my bathroom floor. I don’t take a lot with me when I work. All I need is my laptop and the notebook I scribble all my outlines and notes in. (Unless I’m working on agent/editor revisions, in which case I’ll have a very scribbled over, worse for wear edit letter with me too.) Besides that, there isn’t anything I need to have with me to work.

Brett: Who is your current favorite author(s)?

Kayvion: Philip K. Dick. One day, I want to write sci-fi with the punch that he did.

Brett: What book(s) are you reading right now? How many books are in your ‘to be read” pile?

Kayvion: Currently reading Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury, Flight of the Raven by Morgan L. Busse, The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Astral Traveler’s Daughter by K.C. Archer, and The Push by Ashley Audrain. My TBR pile is about ten books tall right now…

Brett: If you could co-write a book with another author, living or dead, who would that be?

Kayvion: I don’t think I’d want to co-author with anyone. Like, ever, lol.

Brett: Your first novel is targeted toward YA (Young Adults). Is this a genre you’ll stick with in the future? What are the chances you’ll genre jump at some point and write something in a different genre? If so, what genre would you like to dabble in?

Kayvion: Ideally, I’d love to write in Middle Grade, YA, and adult, in almost every genre under the sun. At the moment though, everything I’ve signed for is YA, so it’s looking like I’ll be doing that for a while.

Brett: If I were to drive to your home in Louisiana to have dinner with the Lewis family, what would be on the menu?

Kayvion: Take-out pizza and sarcasm.

Brett: If you could spend an entire weekend doing nothing but bingeing your favorite television shows, what would you watch?

Kayvion: Once Upon a Time, Lost, Hunter X Hunter, Supernatural, and House of Cards.

Brett: What’s your favorite hobby/activity when you’re not writing?

Kayvion: Reading manga and taking long drives to nowhere.

Brett: For those of us not as cool as you, what is manga?

Kayvion: Haha, I think manga gets pegged as more nerdy than cool. Manga is Japanese comics–what they usually base anime on, like Dragon Ball. Everyone knows Dragon Ball, right?

Brett: What’s your favorite format when you have time to sit down with a book (ebook, physical book, audiobook?)

Kayvion: I usually prefer physical books, but lately I’ve been listening to more audiobooks. At night, I stick to ebooks though, so I guess I flip-flop on that one.

Brett: What’s your idea of a perfect Saturday night on the town?

Kayvion: I don’t really do nights “on the town.” I love nights in with my besties though. We watch crappy movies, order way too much doordash, and do really bad art projects.

Brett: Have you ever read a novel and left thinking, “I could have written that better?”

Kayvion: Yes. Whether or not I was right, I’ll never know.

Brett: I know authors don’t like talking about their work before it’s completed, but give us ONE word to best describe the novel you’re working on now.

Kayvion: AMBITIOUS

Brett: Kayvion, thank you so much for being a guest on my “Author Spotlight” blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Is there anything you’d like to say to your readers before we finish the interview?

Kayvion: Oh, nothing much maybe just READ THE HALF-CLASS.

Image courtesy of Kayvion Lewis

If you would like to contact Kayvion, click this link to check out her website: https://www.kayvionlewis.com/

If you would like to order her book, click this link: https://www.amazon.com/Half-Class-Class-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B08L5T9WS8

Finally, if you would like to check out Brett’s Books, click this link: https://www.amazon.com/Brett-Nelson/e/B08D2C1YSC

by Brett Nelson

March 18, 2022

Image courtesy of Shashank Kumawat

Welcome to the March installment of my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT. It’s humbling how many people have found their way to my little blog every month, and even more humbling that they come back for more. I’ve had many people reach out and thank me for bringing them authors to read that they may not have otherwise ever heard about. To play a small role in introducing someone to a new author is such an amazing thing. When you read a book, you can go anywhere you want to go, and I like to think I played a small role in sending them on their journey.

Speaking of journeys, I’ve been on a wild one since becoming an author. Every writer’s conference I’ve attended has different things to offer, different ideas for how to succeed, how to grow your author platform, marketing ideas you may never have thought of, or just in general how to become a better writer. Regardless of the angle of the meeting, though, one topic always comes up: TikTok.

For those of you who don’t know, TikTok is the “cool kids” version of Youtube, except the videos on TikTok are short clips rather than the larger videos you see on Youtube. Most videos on TikTok range from 15 seconds to a couple minutes at most.

I always said I would never join TikTok, but guess what? Never say never, because I’m now a TikTok creator. Every single seminar I’ve attended has said a variation of the same thing: “If you’re an author and aren’t on TikTok, get started now!”

Apparently, authors are doing incredibly well on TikTok. Finally, even though being on camera is not my thing (plus, I just don’t think I have the “cool factor” needed for that particular platform…or for any platform, for that matter…ha!) I released my inhibitions and created my first two videos (as of the time of writing this blog, but hopefully I will have produced much more by the time this blog publishes.)

Will I ever produce something so incredible that it goes viral, making me an unexpected TikTok sensation? No, probably not. I always try to keep my visions of grandeur firmly in check. Keeping that reality check in place is how you keep life interesting without stubbing your toe on the mountains of disappointment. I may never be a popular content creator, but I think it will be a great platform because TikTokkers tend to be more willing to watch, engage, and even follow the virtual antics of a complete stranger.

I may never become an overnight sensation at anything I do, and honestly, I’m totally fine with that. I may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I am what I am, and at least I’m willing to trudge into unknown territories, right?

I think that’s an important factor in living a fulfilled life. When we live our lives doing the same old ordinary things day in and day out, we’ll live a boring and ordinary life. Now don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with an ordinary existence if it’s what you really want, but I think branching out and trying new things, going new places, and meeting new people outside your typical circle–these are the spices of life that give you a boost toward the extraordinary life we all want to experience on one level or another.

You and I may never top the New York Times Best-Sellers list. The world may never see our faces in Hollywood’s next blockbuster phenomenon. We may never scale the sky-high mountains of the world. We many never accomplish anything “huge,” at least not in the world’s eyes, but get out there and climb the mountains in your own life: Instead of ordering the same old burrito at your favorite Mexican restaurant, why not try the chimichanga for a change? Maybe you’ll like it, maybe you won’t, but at least you’ve tried something new. Instead of buying that same old boring dark blue shirt, maybe get the bold new pattern. Instead of the Tuesday night sloppy joes for dinner, spring for the ribeye on occasion. My point is, do something a little different and see how it enriches your life in even a small way.

If you have a song to sing…be brave and sing it! If you have a poem to write…be brave and write it! If you want to put a silly video on TikTok or Youtube…be brave and go do it. Even if only twenty people hear your song, or read your poem, or watch your video? Well, yay for you, because at least you did it, and maybe your effort gave someone else a little infusion of joy they needed that day.

When you put yourself out into the world, will you have your fair share of critics along the way? Unfortunately, It’s a mathematical certainty because we live in an ugly world of competition and pessimism where people see other people reaching for the stars and want them to fail.

As a novelist, I can tell you with a resounding “YES!” You will have your fair share of critics when you branch out into the unchartered territories of your life. You may shed a tear or two at their biting criticism, and you may even want to hang it up beneath the stinging whip of the world’s criticisms, but I encourage you to keep plodding on regardless of what your naysayers have to say about you. Let your dissenters fall into the abyss of your mind where they belong, and instead wrap yourself in those who choose to the see the good in you rather than your many deficiencies. Despite what they say about you, get our there and climb your mountains–achieve new heights!

The topic of mountains is the perfect prelude to introduce you to today’s guest on AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT. Today’s author has written and published three novels. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and a Master of Science in Land Economics from Texas A&M University.

She and her husband split their time between Houston, Texas and Telluride, Colorado. She enjoys reading and hiking the mountains of Telluride. She is an avid sports lover, especially Texas A&M Football and basketball, the Houston Astros, San Antonio Spurs, and the Denver Broncos.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce you my guest: Novelist Shannon Work

Brett: Shannon, thank you for taking the time to do this with me. Take our readers and me back to the time before Shannon Work became a published author. Were you an avid reader as a child? If so, what were your favorite books to read?

Shannon: I loved to read as a child, but we lived in the country and I spent most of my time outdoors. I would disappear for hours at a time exploring the countryside and even a nearby cave. But when I did read, it was widely and in a variety of genres—I still do! Several of my childhood favorites are Where the Red Fern Grows, Ben and Me, and the occasional Victoria Holt novel I’d sneak from my grandmother.

Brett: I love that you sneaked your grandmother’s romance novels! At what age did you stop and think, “Hey, writing is something I think I could do!” Was a novel your first attempt at writing, or did you start smaller and work your way into full-length novels?

Shannon: I’ve always written. I still have the poetry I wrote as a child. I was the editor of my high school newspaper and then majored in journalism in college. I didn’t think of writing a novel until I was in my early thirties when I started a historical family saga (John Jakes is still one of my favorite authors). I wrote about a hundred and fifty pages, but never completed it. I started a second novel probably ten years later but never finished it either. Then ten years after that I decided to get serious about writing and actually completed a project. That’s when I wrote Now I See You, a traditional mystery set in Aspen, Colorado.

Brett: One of my all-time favorite authors is Mary Higgins Clark. Before her death in 2020, she dusted off one of her first attempts at writing, a short story from 1973 called Death Wears a Beauty Mask, which was never published. Instead, she abandoned it to write what would become her first best-selling novel. To the glee of her millions of fans, she finally pulled out that story almost fifty years later, finished it, and published it. Is there a story you’ve started that you abandoned and never finished?

Shannon: Mary Higgins Clark is one of my all-time favorites, too! When I decided to write a mystery, I reread many of her novels to learn how to write one. Yes, like Mary, I have unfinished projects hidden away in my closet—the two unfinished novels that I know I’ll never complete, and one short story set in the Big Bend area of Texas that still intrigues me. I might pull the story out one day and finish it!

Brett: When it comes to novel writing, are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?” In other words, do you plot your novel before writing it, or do you just jump in and figure it out as you go along?

Shannon: I’m a plotter. I like knowing where the story is going. I’ve tried writing both with and without an outline and found that I write much faster and more efficiently when I have the story already sketched out. Of course, once I start writing, things always change. I’ll come up with new ideas, or certain characters will pop up and take on a life of their own. My outlines are a living document. I modify them as I go.

Brett: As an author, choosing the favorite book you’ve written is like choosing which of your children is your favorite. That said, of the books you’ve written, which would you say is your favorite?

Shannon: My favorite book is always the one I’m working on or have just completed. Right now, that’s The Killing Storm, which is available at Amazon now.

Brett: Now I See You was your debut novel, which I’ve read and loved! For readers who haven’t read the book, share with us some highlights of that novel.

Shannon: Thank you, Brett! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Now I See You is a murder mystery set in Aspen, Colorado. At the beginning of the story, one woman has already been found dead and another, the daughter of a wealthy financier, is missing. Georgia Glass, a news anchor from Denver, finds the body hidden in the garage of an old Victorian home she’s just inherited. Her journalist instincts kick in and she’s determined to help Detective Jack Martin with the Aspen Police Department solve the case. But in doing so, she attracts the attention of the killer. Will she be his next victim? The story includes an eclectic cast of characters set in the ritziest town in the Rockies. I had a lot of fun writing about them. And one of them is a murderer!

Brett: What inspired the idea for your Mountain Resort series?

Shannon: After I decided to write a mystery, I thought about where to set a story. I’ve read and studied many of Mary Higgins Clark’s novels, which are largely set in New York or New Jersey, where Mary lived. My husband and I spend roughly half the year in Houston, Texas, and the other half in Telluride, Colorado. I know and love the Rockies, and decided they would make a great setting for mystery novels. I’m intrigued by the resort areas, where glitz and glamour meet the beautiful but rugged terrain. So far, I’ve set stories in Aspen, Vail, and Telluride. But I have ideas for a future book that could eventually bring Detective Jack Martin back to Texas, too!

Brett: Of the books you’ve written, is there one that stands out as being the most difficult one to write, either emotionally or technically, etc? Why?

Shannon: To paraphrase Danielle Steel, “writing some books are easy, others are like dragging an elephant across the room.” I’ve written three novels and have already experienced both types. I’ll never tell which ones were the easiest or most difficult to write. I hope my readers can’t tell the difference!

Brett: On average, how long does it take you to write one novel?

Shannon: My first novel, Now I See You, took almost two years to write. I was studying and learning as I went. But I’ve gotten faster. It took roughly four months to complete the first drafts of my last two novels.

Image courtesy of Alexandr Podvalny

Brett: As a southern gentleman, I live with constant heat and humidity for what feels like nine months of the year, and I often yearn for biting cold temperatures and snow piles up my knees. Your Mountain Resort Series, which includes Now I See You, Everything to Lose, and The Killing Storm, all take place in Colorado. What made you choose the amazing Rocky Mountains as the locale for your book series?

Shannon: It was an easy decision to set the series in the Rocky Mountains. There haven’t been a lot of mysteries set in the Rockies, yet they lend themselves so well to stories of intrigue and suspense. The mountains have mysteries and secrets of their own—stories of feuds and murders, missing people, and lost treasure. And always in the background is this beautiful, yet rugged and brutal landscape. It’s been fun to add a contemporary element to these stories by setting them in some of the ritziest resort towns. When you gather rich and famous residents and tourists together with locals in such an unforgiving setting, it provides for a lot of potential conflict!

Brett: You’ve published three books, and as a result you’ve written several characters. Which character that you’ve written would you not get along with in real life? Which one would be a friend you most wish you had in real life?

Shannon: Charles Stratton in Everything to Lose is the character I would least like in real life. He’s an insufferable snob. I can’t stand snobs in general, but snobbish men are the worst! On the flip side, I’ve written several characters who I would welcome as friends. My favorite, again from Everything to Lose, would be Doris Reed. If you’ve read the book, you’ll know why! I would also love a friend like Judith Hadley in my latest novel, The Killing Storm.

Brett: When you start writing a book, do you always know the title before you begin writing, or does the title emerge somewhere in the writing process?

Shannon: Titles are tricky—and fun! I’ve done it both ways. I’ve known the title before I started and had it emerge while writing the first draft.

Brett: Do you ever worry after completing a book that you’ll never be able to write another one, or am I the only one plagued with this fear?

Shannon: You’re not alone! Thinking I’m out of stories is my worst fear! Each time I’ve finished a book, I’ve worried it was the last story I had in me. I think the problem is mostly mental, and something as authors, we just have to work through. At least I hope so!

Brett: Give us a short description of your working space. Is there anything you must have to flow in the creative process? When you take a minute to look out the nearest window, what do you see?

Shannon: I write everywhere—inside, outside, sitting at the dining room table, or in bed. I even wrote one of the most pivotal scenes in The Killing Storm on a plane. I write on my laptop, so it goes everywhere I do. We spend summers in Colorado, and I’m always writing outdoors there.

Brett: Let’s pretend Hollywood just called and they want to make a blockbuster movie of ONE of your books, and you must choose which book. Which would it be?  You also get to be the Casting Director—who plays the main protagonist and the main antagonist?

Shannon: This is a difficult question to answer. When I’m writing, my characters are so vivid to me. I know what they look like, how they talk, what they think. I almost never start out with a celebrity or someone I know in mind. One exception is the victim in The Killing Storm. I took a famous quote from Mary Higgins Clark to heart. Mary has humorously said on several occasions that if someone is mean to her, she kills them in her next book. I’ll just leave it there!

Brett: Who is your current favorite author(s)?

Shannon: Mary Higgins Clark is my all-time favorite author. I love her suspense stories. Plus, she seemed like such a nice lady. I regret never having met her in person, but I recently won her favorite “super sleuth” cape donated by her family to a charity auction. I was thrilled! I posted a picture of myself wearing it on my social media accounts. Other authors I always enjoy reading are William Kent Krueger, Ruth Ware, and Donna Leon.

SIDE NOTE FROM BRETT: That’s cool. I want to see the picture of you wearing it! Shannon, you’ll be VERY JEALOUS when I tell you this. I actually met Mary Higgins Clark at a book signing once!! She did a book signing about an hour from where I live, so of course I went. I stood in line for two hours to buy her newest book and have her sign it. It was a few years ago. When my turn finally got there, I was so nervous! She had this amazing “jeweled” ink pen that had jewels lining the barrel of the pen. I commented on it, and she handed it over to me and said, in her heavy New Jersey accent, “You gotta feel this. The darned thing is dreadfully heavy. My publisher gives me a jeweled pen every year when I release a book, and sometimes I use it at my book signings, but it’s so heavy that I have to switch off between this one and a Bic!” When I thanked her and walked away, she asked me what my favorite book of hers was, and I said, “Anything with Alvirah in it!” She said, “Alvirah is a great broad, isn’t she? Oh, and by the way, I love your name…Brett. It sounds so sexy! If you see Brett pop up in a future book, you’ll know I was thinking of you when I wrote it.” I almost passed out when I saw the name Brett in her first “Under Suspicion” book I’ve Got You Under My Skin. The character Brett is Laurie’s boss’ name, and he shows up in all of the “Under Suspicion” novels. Now, I can’t say with 100% certainty that this was the case, but I’ll go to my grave thinking that she remembered me and, in fact, named the character after me!

Brett: What book(s) are you reading right now? How many books are in your ‘to be read” pile?

Shannon: My ‘to be read’ pile is endless. I purchase more books than I’ll ever be able to read. But when I finish a book, I never know what I’ll be in the mood for next, so I like to have lots of options! I’m currently rereading the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. They’re classics in the crime genre.

Brett: Have you ever killed a character, then had “killer’s remorse?”

Shannon: I often have killer’s remorse. I’ve killed several characters that I liked. But when it’s for the sake of a good story, you take one for the team! The victim I regret the most is Elliot Banks, who is murdered at the beginning of Everything to Lose. The more I delved into his back story, and the more I wrote about him, the more I liked him.

Brett: I remember the first time I cried when writing a particularly emotional scene in my Christmas novel A Christmas to Live For. I wasn’t expecting that to happen, and it took me by surprise. Has this happened to you? If so, can you describe which book and scene that was?

Shannon: You’re not alone! I’ve cried several times while writing each of my books. And always while writing the last scene—I refer to them as my wrap-up scenes. I don’t know if it’s because the story is finally over and time for me to let the characters go, or if it’s from pure exhaustion. But I’ve cried every single time. And I still cry if I reread one of them. We authors are a peculiar bunch!

Brett: You primarily write suspense novels. What are the chances of you ever genre jumping and writing something in a different genre? If so, in which genre(s) would you like to dabble?

Shannon: My first attempt at writing was historical fiction, but I wasn’t able to complete it. I love history and got lost in the research. I’m enjoying writing mysteries. I don’t see myself trying something new, but you never know!

Brett: If I were to drive to your home in Houston to have dinner with the Work family, what would be on the menu?

Shannon: Mexican food! Enchiladas, fajitas, beans, chips and queso. I’d bake a Tres Leches cake for dessert. I grew up in Del Rio, Texas, which is on the border. Mexican food was always on the menu, and still is!

Brett: I love Mexican food, so just tell me when, and I’m there! If you could spend an entire weekend doing nothing but bingeing your favorite television shows, what would you watch?

Shannon: I don’t watch a lot of television, so I would probably re-watch one of my favorites—Downton Abbey or Peaky Blinders.

Brett: What’s your favorite hobby/activity for the rare occasions you’re not writing?

Shannon: When not writing, I enjoy Texas A&M football games in the fall and hiking around our home in Colorado in the summer. And of course reading!

Brett: What’s your favorite format when you have time to sit down with a book (ebook, physical book, audiobook?)

Shannon: I will read the occasional ebook, but physical books are my go-to. I much prefer the feel and experience of reading a physical book.

Brett: Have you ever read a novel and left thinking, “I could have written that better?”

Shannon: No. I can’t think of any. It must be the insecurity of still being a relatively new author. I try to learn something from every book I read—even ones I don’t particularly like.

Brett: As a relatively new published author, what advise would you give to someone who aspires to write their first novel?

Shannon: Read! And then read some more! I think writing in a genre you love to read makes the writing process so much easier and more enjoyable. But you still have to put in the time. Writing a novel is a lonely, solitary pursuit. To complete a book, you have to really want to do it. It’s not easy, but it’s so much fun when you’re finished!

Brett: You recently released your newest novel, The Killing Storm. Tell us a little about that book.

Shannon: The Killing Storm is a traditional murder mystery set in Telluride, Colorado in the dead of winter. On the night of the season’s worst snowstorm, a famous author goes missing from her historic mansion in the Rockies. Detective Jack Martin is determined to find her but is faced with an avalanche of secrets and lies from even those closest to the missing author. And one of them will do whatever it takes to keep Jack from learning the truth. It’s a fun, twisty whodunit set in Telluride where my husband and I spend half the year. So of course I included some of our favorite restaurants and places in town. I had a lot of fun writing it!

Brett: Well, there’s another title to add to my neverending to-be-read pile. Shannon, thank you so much for being a guest on my “Author Spotlight” blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Is there anything you’d like to say to your readers before we finish the interview?

Shannon: Thank you, Brett. I enjoy reading your blog and really appreciate the opportunity to be included! As a relatively new author, I’m so appreciative of everyone who reads one of my books. And there has been nothing more rewarding than getting kind reviews and personal messages (even a couple snail mail letters) from readers. I would like to thank each and every one!

Image courtesy of Shannon Work

Shannon enjoys hearing from her readers. If you would like contact her, her email address is: contact@shannonwork.com. You can also find her on her author website at: https://www.shannonwork.com/

If you would like to purchase Shannon’s books:

Image courtesy of Shannon Work

“Now I See You: https://www.amazon.com/Now-See-You-Shannon-Work-ebook/dp/B08J454XPT

Image courtesy of Shannon Work

“Everything to Lose” https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093R4MKCF

Image courtesy of Shannon Work

“The Killing Storm” https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09RVTTH5C

If you would like to follow Shannon on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShannonWorkAuthor

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20702339.Shannon_Work?from_search=true&from_srp=true

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/shannon-work

If you would like to purchase Brett’s books: https://www.amazon.com/Brett-Nelson/e/B08D2C1YSC

Cover images courtesy of Brett Nelson

Thank you for reading today’s blog. Come back in April 2022 for an interview with another great author!

Brett Nelson

March 18, 2022

Photo courtesy of Josh Hild

Hello Readers. Thank you for coming back for another installment of my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT blog. While starting an author blog has turned out to be a time-consuming endeavor, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Having an opportunity to speak with and work alongside other talented fellow authors has been a fulfilling and exciting experience for me. I’m so grateful for the authors who are willing to give up a few minutes of their time to be my guest, as well as for the many readers who make it to my blog every month to read about the great authors I spotlight.

For as far back as I can remember, reading has been a favorite pastime of mine. I don’t recall the early childhood books I liked (I’ll have to make a note to ask my mom), but as an older child/teenager I loved Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew series. I still have the original first-print hardbacks of “The Secret of the Old Clock” and “The Hidden Staircase,” and every so often when I want a nostalgic read, I STILL enjoy picking them up and reading them because they’re my childhood. I also enjoyed the Hardy Boys series of books by Edward Stratemeyer, the Boxcar Children books by Gertrude Chandler Warner, and the “Little House on the Prairie” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, among so many others.

I love books because they take us to places we’ve never been, they force us to deal with types of people we would not otherwise encounter in our life, and they make us a witness into the characters’ extraordinary life circumstances. I can say with resounding gratitude that though I have my own fair share of heartaches, tribulations, disappointments, and hurdles to navigate in life, thank goodness I don’t have to deal with the extreme atrocities that most of us authors like to put our characters through!

We may not always like every book we pick up, because reading is subjective. A reader may hate a book with every fiber of their being, while for ten others it’s one of the best things they’ve ever read. That’s the beauty of books–they mean different things to different people.

Like every other reader on the planet, I don’t love every book I pick up, but I’ve come to realize there is value in every book because behind every word on the page is a living and breathing person who lovingly infuses every word with their essence. Within every page is a journey worth taking, there is a lesson to be learned, adversities to face, and situations to overcome. Books, to me, are among the very best treasures in life.

As a reader, when you pick up a book that doesn’t instantly spike your “love-o-meter” into the stratosphere, I encourage you to focus on finding something positive to take away from your reading experience. Trust me, it’s there if you take the time to open your mind and search it out. I believe even if you don’t totally love a book, you can still allow it to take you on a wild ride.

Without a doubt, wild rides are what’s in store for you within the pages of the books of today’s guest of AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT. To date, my special guest has penned more than eighty novels, and she dips the quill of her pen into the ink to bring us great stories in many genres: mystery, thriller, paranormal, romance, horror, supernatural thrillers, and fantasy.

She has sold more than six million books, and is an Amazon All-Star Best-Selling Author in the U.S., UK, and Canada.

She has more than 7,000 followers on Facebook, almost 30,000 followers on Bookbub, and her fans have dubbed her as, “The Queen of Plot Twists.”

It is with great pleasure that I bring you today’s AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Willow Rose.

Brett: Before we get into the nitty gritty of why we’re here—BOOKS—let’s go back a few years to before you were a writer. As a child, were you an avid reader? If so, what childhood books formed your love for reading and ultimately for writing

Willow: I have always loved reading and writing. But mostly telling stories. I would sit in the classroom and tell my classmates stories at recess, making them forget to go out and play. My teacher would listen in as well and would sometimes give me hints afterwards to get better. My favorite book as a child was “The Neverending Story.” I loved it so much, I read it over and over again. I still pull it out from time to time and re-read it, just because it’s so wonderful.

Brett: At what age did the realization hit that, “Writing is something I’d like to do?” Was a novel your first attempt at writing, or did you start smaller and work your way up to full-length novels?

Willow: I remember making a cartoon as a child, killing off Tarzan, and of course it was Jane who did it. And then later I would write short stories in high school, that my teacher thought I should send in to literary competitions, but I never did because I didn’t think they were good enough. I wrote my first novel when I was twenty-nine, and it took me two years to finish it.

Brett: Let’s go back in time and talk about the first novel you ever published. Putting a novel into the world, especially for the first time, can be scary, because even though it’s fiction, there’s still a little of the author tucked away in there. Which novel was the first you ever published? How did you feel when you realized your first attempt at writing was out there for anyone in the world to pick up and read?

Willow: My first book was under my maiden name and was published in Denmark, where I lived at the time, before I moved to Florida. It was based on a story I had been reporting about back when I was a journalist working at a Danish national TV network. It received the worst reviews it possibly could, and one paper wrote that they didn’t think I would ever publish another book. I proved them wrong, lol. Eighty-eight books later, I am still at it. It was super tough when it happened, but it made me realize – once I was done crying – that I didn’t write for the critics. I wrote because I couldn’t help myself, because I loved it so much. And then I decided to make the next book better and to keep getting better for the rest of my career.

Brett: Eighty-eight books! Good for you for not allowing critics to keep you from following your dream! When it comes to novel writing, are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?” Do you plot your novels before writing them, or do you just jump in and figure it out as you go along?

Willow: I’m definitely a plotter. All my books start with a plot, an idea. And then I make an outline. The storyline can develop along the way, and often it does, but I need a good plot to begin with. I need to know where I am going. It’s always more important to me why someone was murdered, than how or even who did it.

Brett: This is a nearly impossible question to ask an author because our books are our blood, sweat, and tears, so forgive me in advance. Of all the books you’ve written, can you tell us your top three all-time favorites, and why?

Willow: “Such a Good Girl” that I published in June of this year, was a big favorite of mine. Mostly because it was based on my own #metoo story from when I worked at the TV network. It was by far the toughest one I ever had to write, but it was also healing for me to finally tell my story. I haven’t told anyone about what happened in twenty years.

Brett: So We Lie is the novel you’ve most recently published. For those who haven’t read the book, tantalize us with some of the highlights of that novel.

Willow: So We Lie is a prequel to my most popular series, the Eva Rae Thomas series. It takes us back ten years to when she was just fresh out of the academy and trying to prove her worth as an FBI profiler. It was super fun for me to dig down into her past and explore to beginning of all her struggles.

Brett: Of all the books you’ve written, is there one that stands out as the most difficult one to write, either emotionally or technically, etc? Why?

Willow: “Such a Good Girl” because it was my own personal story, one I had never told anyone before.

Photo courtesy of Ketut Subiyanto

Brett: As an author myself, I don’t have as much time as I’d like to read other authors’ works, but I have read two of your novels ITSY BITSY SPIDER and BETTER NOT CRY. I’m an avid lover of all things Christmas, and I admittedly enjoy warm and fuzzy Christmas books. That said, BETTER NOT CRY was the first of your novels I wanted to read because…HELLO…Christmas! I really enjoyed having a Christmas read that was on the darker side of what I usually like, and I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book. Tell us a little about this book, and what prompted you to branch into the “naughty” side of Santa.

Willow: I was asked to write a short story for a Christmas box set with a bunch of other authors, so I wrote one called BETTER WATCH OUT, and later published it as a novella. But I wanted to do more with the story, so that’s why I made an entire book that takes off where the novella ends, and features Rebekka Franck from my series by the same name.

Brett: What are the chances of you bringing us another Christmas-themed book in the future?

Willow: They’re pretty big, as I love taking a scary twist on something as nice and cozy as Christmas.

Brett: On average, how long does it take you to write one novel?

Willow: Around 2-3 months usually. I used to write faster, but I don’t have to anymore as I am selling a lot of books now.

Brett: Think back over all the books you’ve written—and there are a LOT! You’ve written hundreds if not thousands of characters. Which character would you not get along with in real life? Which one would be a friend you wish you had?

Willow: I don’t think I would get along with Richard Wanton from SUCH A GOOD GIRL. He really makes me angry. And I would love to have a friend like Miranda who is Eva Rae Thomas’ ex mother-in-law. She’s such a fun and wonderful person. And she’s always there to help Eva Rae out when needed. Not many ex-mothers-in-law would do what she does for Eva Rae.

Brett: When you start writing a book, do you always know the title before you begin writing? Or have there been times when the title didn’t emerge until later in the writing process?

Willow: I usually find the title before I begin, but it hasn’t always been like that. Sometimes it’s like the title won’t come. I have even had some books where I had used one title and then changed it years later, when something better came along.

Brett: Do you ever finish a book and worry that you’ll never be able to write another one?

Willow: Every time. That’s why I always start a new one almost immediately, and then take a break once the start has been written. Because then I can rest knowing the next one is already on its way.

Brett: After completing a novel, how long does it take before you launch into the next one?

Willow: I do it right away, and then after I have written about 20 pages of a new one and have the outline ready, then I usually take a couple of weeks off. In that time, I complete all the stuff I have kept postponing while writing, like cleaning the house and going to the dentist and all that.

Brett: Give us a short description of your working space. Is there anything you must have to flow in the creative process? When you take a minute to look out the nearest window, what do you see?

Willow: I have about thirty snow globes on my desk. Every time I stop to think about something in the book, I shake all of them and watch the snow fall inside of them. It’s been this thing for years that every time we go somewhere, I will buy a snow globe and bring it home, so they are from all over the world.

Brett: Let’s pretend Hollywood just called and they want to make a blockbuster movie of ONE of your books, and you must choose which book. Which would it be?  You also get to be the Casting Director—who plays the main protagonist and the main antagonist?

Willow: DON’T LIE TO ME, the first book in my Eva Rae Thomas series. I want Melissa McCarthy to play Eva Rae Thomas and Christoph Waltz to play the bad guy (I’m not going to say who he is, because that would reveal the plot of the book, and that’s not fair to those who haven’t read it yet.)

Brett: Who is your current favorite author(s)?

Willow: Right now, I am reading through all of Mary Higgins Clark’s books. She died in 2020, and I thought I wanted to read everything she had written to sort of study her development. It’s very interesting and the books are excellent, even for today.

Brett: You and I have that in common. Mary Higgins Clark is one of my very favorite authors, too. What book(s) are you reading right now? How many books are in your ‘to be read” pile?

Willow: I’m currently reading KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM CRY by Mary Higgins Clark. I have a ton of books in my to read pile. I wouldn’t know how many.

Brett: I remember the first time I cried when writing a particularly emotional scene in my Christmas novel. I wasn’t expecting that to happen, and it took me by surprise. Has this happened to you? If so, can you describe which book and scene that was?

Willow: In SUCH A GOOD GIRL, I write about a rape I experienced myself and that was so hard, I had to write with the tears rolling down my cheeks, and I had to take many breaks. I haven’t read it again since we published it, and I’m not sure I want to. I do believe it made the book so much stronger and better though. Because it was so personal. Go where the pain is, someone said to me once.

Brett: If you could co-write a book with another author, living or dead, who would that be?

Willow: I don’t think I can write with someone else. I really really like working alone.

Brett: If I were to drive to your home in Florida to have dinner with the Rose family, what would be on the menu?

Willow: Danish Frikadeller or Tarteletter. We like to serve Danish meals for people. And we would give you Danish licorice for dessert. It’s salty and spicy, not sweet.

Brett: If you could spend an entire weekend doing nothing but bingeing your favorite television shows, what would you watch?

Willow: Grey’s Anatomy. I love that show.

Brett: What’s your favorite hobby/activity for the rare occasions you’re not writing?

Willow:  If the waves are decent, I surf

Brett: What’s your favorite format when you have time to sit down with a book (ebook, physical book, audiobook?)

Willow: I usually read ebooks on my Kindle. It’s so easy, and you can take it everywhere.

Brett: Have you ever read a novel and left thinking, “I could have written that better?”

Willow: I always think that about my own books. I think that’s why I keep writing, because I believe I can write something better than the last thing. In a way, I am constantly trying to write the perfect book, and as long as I haven’t, then I continue.

Brett: I know authors don’t like talking about their work before it’s completed, but give us ONE word that would best describe the novel you’re working on now.

Willow: Shocking

Brett: Willow, thank you so much for being a guest on my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Is there a date when your next novel will be published?

Willow: My next book is up for preorder. It’s called LITTLE DID SHE KNOW, and it’s the tenth book in the Eva Rae Thomas series. The date is set for the spring right now, but that will be moved closer when I know more about how long it’s going to take me to write it.

For readers interested in contacting Willow Rose, you may email her at: www.willow-rose.net

Author photo courtesy of Willow Rose

If you’d like to pick up a Willow Rose novel:

Cover Image courtesy of Willow Rose

“Such A Good Girl”: https://www.amazon.com/SUCH-GOOD-GIRL-urgently-heartbreaking-ebook/dp/B08Y5XF6CR

Cover image courtesy of Willow Rose

“So We Lie”: https://www.amazon.com/SO-WE-LIE-gripping-heart-stopping-ebook/dp/B097FVBG2K

Cover image courtesy of Willow Rose

“Little Did She Know”: https://www.amazon.com/LITTLE-DID-SHE-KNOW-intriguing-ebook/dp/B09GSZ9PVM

If you would like to follow Ms. Rose on social media, you can find her by clicking on the links below:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/willowredrose

Twitter: https://twitter.com/madamwillowrose

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4804769.Willow_Rose

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/willow-rose

Author photo courtesy of Brett Nelson

Thank you for reading, and be sure to come back in March to meet another exciting author.

In the meantime, you can also pick up my novels on Amazon by clicking this link:

https://www.amazon.com/Brett-Nelson/e/B08D2C1YSC

Image courtesy of Brett NelsonImage courtesy of Brett nelsonImage courtesy of Brett NelsonImage courtesy of Brett Nelson

Thank you, and check back in March for another exciting AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT.

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by Brett Nelson

January 14, 2022

Photo courtesy of Olga Lioncat

Welcome, readers, to the January 2022 edition of my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT blog.

Happy New Year! I hope you had a blessed Christmas season with friends and loved ones. I know many people are glad to see the holidays end, but I’m not one of those people. It always makes me sad when the excitement of the holidays has dwindled, when Christmas movies no longer show on television, the 24/7 Christmas music disappears, and the tree, decorations, and lights are put away. Suddenly, the house looks a little more sparse and we find ourselves thrust back into the grind of work and the many other things life throws at us. As I heard in a movie once, “December 26th is the saddest day of the year.” For me, it really is.

The month of January can be a cold and dreary month, even down south where both today’s guest author and I reside. I love cold weather and always dread seeing those first shoots of green in the lawn because, let’s be honest, it signifies that lawn mowing season, accompanied by unbearable heat and humidity, are about to spring their relentless, ugly heads upon us. But, let’s not dwell on that unpleasantness right now, because the nine months of summer (that might be a slight exaggeration, but I’m a writer–it’s what I do–ha!) will be here soon enough. Dead lawns, thick sweaters, and a foot of snow–even though we rarely get it this far south–is my happy place right now.

That said, what better month than January to stay home out of the cold as often as possible, fill your mug with your favorite hot beverage, burrow under a thick blanket, and read your favorite book. Or, in my case, my favorite BOOKS!

The guest on my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT this month is a new author to me. This past August, I picked up my first Lexie Nicholas novel entitled, HURRICANE BEACH. Not only did the title pull me in but also the book cover, because it depicted a crashing ocean. I read the entire book in two days and immediately looked her up on Amazon to see if she had other books available, which was how I found TWIST OF FATE.

The book cover on TWIST OF FATE really pulled me in because it had a tornado on the cover. I didn’t even need to read the description to know it was a book I wanted to read, because I’m a storm nut. And, of course, like the first book, it didn’t disappoint.

I often wonder if I’ve missed my calling in life because I love weather–especially the severe stuff. I don’t enjoy the devastation that results from severe storms, but standing outside to watch storms pass through town excites me, and I love watching television shows about weather chasers.

I remember years ago when I lived in the Oklahoma City area, I had just moved from my parents home into my very first apartment. We got all my stuff moved into the top-floor apartment, and the first night on my own–you guessed it–a huge storm blasted through the area. I didn’t have a television yet, and it was before the days of smart phones, so I was literally at the mercy of anything horrible that could happen. I think I may have had an alarm clock/radio to listen to, but I wasn’t that smart. Instead, I stood on my new balcony watching the seventy mile-per-hour winds whipping through the trees, lightning blazing across the horizon, and thunder rumbling through the plains. In short, I was in my element that night.

Just before the rain hit, I heard a round of panicked pounding on the front door. Since I knew no one in the complex, I got nervous and grabbed the closest thing I could think of to brandish as a weapon: a can of hairspray.

I stood at the door, squared my shoulders, lowered my tenor voice to the lowest register my vocal cords would allow–which pathetically probably wasn’t much–and bellowed a gruff. “Who is it?”

“Sweetie, it’s mom. Open the door!”

I yanked open the door and looked at my parents in surprise. “What you are you doing out in this storm!”

“You don’t have a television and we wanted to make sure you knew storms are on the way.”

Well, yeah, the thunder and lightning kind of clued me in that something was going on. That was what my smarty-pants mouth wanted to say. “Yeah, I knew we were about to get storms,” I offered the more diplomatic response instead, because, you know, there’s that whole “honor thy father and mother” thing.

“And why are you standing on that balcony with all this thunder and lightning?” Mom said.

“I was going to come in when it started raining.”

About that time, a torrent of drenching rain hit, and I rode out the first storm in my first apartment with my parents. I think that night, they may have realized I don’t make logical decisions when it comes to storms.

To this day, my mom still calls or texts to remind me to “get inside the house and stay there,” when severe storms roll through our town. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Which, believe it or not, brings me around to today’s AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT guest.

Up to this point in my blogging history, I’ve had the opportunity to interview a few interesting authors, but I must say, today’s author probably could be the closest to a “soul sister” than any other author I’ve interviewed. Lexie and I are both bonkers for stormy weather, we both seriously missed our callings for meteorology school, we both love Hallmark movies, and we both like to write our novels listening to ocean sounds and movie soundtracks, though my taste in soundtracks leans toward orchestral soundtracks like Batman, The Age of Adaline, and The House of Sand and Fog, just to name a few.

I’m super excited to introduce you to today’s guest–Lexie Nicholas. To date she has written two novels and one novella in her Southern Storms Sweet Romance series of books.

She also writes under the pen name Nickie Cochran, where she has published three novels and a novella (which you can get for free by subscribing to the newsletter on her website–stick around to learn more on these books in the interview to follow).

Lexie is married and lives in Alabama with her husband. She likes to read and write small-town and inspirational novels about ordinary people struggling to make it through life.

Without delay–here is today’s AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT guest, Lexie Nicholas.

Brett: Lexie, before we start talking our favorite subject—BOOKS—let’s go back a few years to before you were a writer.  As a child, were you an avid reader? If so, who were your favorite childhood authors?

Lexie: Hi Brett! First of all, thank you so much for inviting me as a guest on your Author Spotlight blog. It’s such an honor! To answer your question, oh yes, as an only child, books were one of the many ways I kept myself entertained. I grew up in Germany, so as a girl, I got hooked on a book series called Hanni & Nanni, a set of twins who lived at a boarding school and solved mysteries. Doing a quick internet search, the books were written by English author Enid Blyton and the series is called St. Clare’s in English. Think of it as the British version of Nancy Drew. Now, my absolute favorite as a kid, though, was Die Unendliche Geschichte – The Neverending Story written by German author Michael Ende. The book was so awesome, because not only was it written in green and red ink, depending on which world you were in, but it’s also written from the point of view of the boy hiding out in the attic of his school reading this forbidden book, and you get to go on the adventure with him. Just awesome!

Brett: At what age did the writing bug sink its teeth into you, and you thought, “Writing is something I’d like to do?” Was a novel your first attempt at writing, or did you start smaller and work your way up to full-length novels?

Lexie:  Like many authors, I always enjoyed writing. I was the weird kid in my class who always enjoyed writing essays and other writing assignments—I just hated to write them when there was a short time-limit, because I wanted to get deeper into my stories. Fast-forward a couple of decades, I mean, literally decades here, hubby was stationed in Germany with the Army. I just had finished reading the last of Lynn Kurland’s gazillion really cool time-travel highlander novels (she also has a fantasy series, but I never got into those).  Anyway, fresh out of books to read, I couldn’t find anything that interested me. Paranormals were too dark and steamy for me, and at that time, all the books I found in stores were more women’s-fictiony (come on, where’s the love?) and not so much small-town romance. Then it hit me. Why don’t I write the book that I want to read? And so, The Heidelberg Ghost was born, a fun, full-length sweet romance, where the main character returns home to Germany and falls in love with a mischievous ghost. What’s not to like about that?

Brett: Since you beat me to the punch and mentioned your first novel, let’s talk a little deeper about that. Putting a novel out there for public consumption, especially for the first time, can be very scary, because even though it’s fiction, a little of the author gets embedded in the story, and you’re opening yourself up to criticism. How did you feel when you published The Heidelberg Ghost and realized your first attempt at novel writing was out there for anyone in the world to pick up and read?

Lexie: When I self-published The Heidelberg Ghost as Nickie Cochran, I was scared to death. What if people didn’t like it? What if readers are brutally honest and write a ton of 1-star reviews? It didn’t matter, because if I brightened only one reader’s day with my story, it was all worth it to me. Two happy readers? That would be super awesome!

Brett: When it comes to novel writing, are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?” Do you plot your novels before writing them, or do you just jump in and figure it out as you go along?

Lexie: I’m a 100% plotter! I couldn’t even imagine taking on a huge project without knowing where I was going. It would hurt my soul if I’d wrote myself into a corner and had to delete days’ worth of writing and then rewrite that portion. Ouch. No. Not doing that! I usually start with an idea and my 4’ glass whiteboard or jot notes down on my Boox notepad (it’s like a kindle but you can write on it like a notebook). Then I use my writing program, Scrivener, where I create my scene outlines. My final step before I get to the actual writing is to use a template I created based on the Story Genius method by Lisa Cron to write down what happens in each scene and why it matters to my point of view character. I try to write a scene a day, so when I look at my little cheat-sheet, I know exactly what I need to write, then watch the movie play out in my head, and let my fingers do the typing.

Brett: This is a nearly impossible question to ask an author because our books are our blood, sweat, and tears, but of all the books you’ve written, can you pick one as your all-time favorite? Why is that one your favorite?

Lexie: You’re right, it’s almost impossible to answer. Can I cheat and go one per pen name?  We already know that The Heidelberg Ghost was my passion project and my first novel—although, Her Christmas Angel that just released in the fall is a very close second. It’ll always have a special place in my heart. Writing as Lexie, Hurricane Beach is the one…so far. I’m such a weather nerd and Hallmark addict, and moving back down to Alabama inspired me to write a love story with crazy weather all around. Besides, who doesn’t love sweet small-town second-chance romances with storms?

Brett: I can’t speak for anyone else, but I LOVE the idea of small-town romances with a few severe storms built in…ha! As of the publishing of this blog, Twist of Fate is the novel you’ve most recently published. For readers who haven’t read the book, tantalize us with some of the highlights of that novel.

Lexie: Twist of Fate is a sweet, enemies to lovers medical romance, where the new doc in town is on a mission to save his patients—and himself—from the progression of chronic diseases, especially diabetes. Unfortunately, the tempting aroma from the cupcake bakery across the street from his practice makes his quest nearly impossible to accomplish, as his patients flock to Jenna’s shop to take home a couple of treats after their appointments. For the good of his patients, Cody tries to shut down the bakery, but Jenna is not one to give up that easily on her dream. When a tornado threatens the town of Magnolia Hill, both Cody and Jenna are forced to compromise and get along. Can they even go as far as to find love?

Twist of Fate is a very personal story. I’ve been a pre-diabetic for almost a decade and have been fighting from becoming a full-blown Type 2 diabetic. So far, so good!!! Many of my personal experiences show up in Cody’s struggles, so this is another book near and dear to my heart. Adding the element of diabetes to this story is my way of raising awareness and giving other patients hope that diabetes can indeed be managed, and there’s plenty of research that supports this.

Photo courtesy of Ralph W. Lambrecht

Brett: I have read your novels HURRICANE BEACH and TWIST OF FATE. As a huge lover of rain and thunderstorms, I’m the crazy loon who stands in the garage while the wind whips at fifty miles per hour and tornado sirens blare in the distance, just because I want to watch the action. Your covers really grabbed my attention (one has “hurricane” in the title and the other has a tornado on the cover, so I was instantly hooked!) What made you choose weather as a plot for your novels?

Lexie: Wow, Brett! We had a tornado come through our town just after I had submitted Twist of Fate to my editor. We watched the radar and did a quick Walmart run before the storm came. Just before we turned back into our neighborhood, we saw three wall clouds dipping pretty low in separate spots. We finished unloading our couple of bags, then watched from the garage as the line of storms approached. The clouds were swirling wildly above us and we noticed a rotating motion. Putting my new iPhone to use, I recorded all the action. We heard the commotion in the trees as the first gusts approached and knocked down all the trashcans that were not secured after trash pickup that morning. At that time hubby yelled: “Let’s go inside. We’ve got to close the garage door.” I told him that I could see a wall of rain coming right at us and that I wanted to see it, then we could go in. It was so awesome to watch as a distinct rain line wet the pavement about the same speed a car would drive through our street. The rain blew almost horizontally in the wind and there was so much noise around us. My adrenaline was definitely flowing. Happy with having witnessed the storm roll in, and not wanting to get wet, I told hubby I was good now and we could go inside. Halfway to the door into our house, the power went out and tornado sirens blared, then all our phones, battery powered devices, and our weather radio went off at the same time. We manually closed the garage door – it slammed shut with a loud bang – then waited out the weather. Turns out, it was an EF1 tornado that dropped down in the busiest part of town were all the stores are. Luckily, no one was hurt, although the damage was considerable. So, Brett, I think we’re kindred spirits when it comes to the love of stormy weather. My hubby calls me a weather nut. I love the excitement and watching the awesome displays of mother nature—as long as nobody gets hurt, that is, of course. How could I not sneak it into my novels?

Brett: On average, how long does it take you to write a novel?

Lexie: I still work full-time to support my writing habit. Actually, I’m only 8 years from when I can begin drawing a pension— the gift that keeps on giving—so it takes me a little longer to write my books. It also doesn’t help that I’m a bit of a perfectionist and that I’m not particularly blessed with speed-reading skills (yes, I confess that I do that read-every-word thing—always have). Therefore, I can’t even fathom how some authors can crank out a book every month. Wow­—hats off to them. A realistic speed for me from planning to publishing a full-length novel is about 6-9 months. 

Brett: Think back over the books you’ve written–you’ve written several characters. Which character would you not get along with in real life? Which one would be a friend you wish you had in real life?

Lexie: I would want Anna to be my friend in real life, because she’s fun and we could go storm chasing together. Then, if something would go wonky, she could save me. My husband was a paramedic for a while when he had a break in his military service, but he doesn’t get as excited as I do about storms. Bummer. Want to know a fun fact? I almost got into meteorology in college and did a semester of Air Force ROTC to become an officer, but we quickly realized that with hubby being active duty Army at that time, it was almost impossible for me to follow through with that plan.

Now, who would I NOT want to be friends with? Oh, that would be Roberta, the dragon, from Mamaw’s Diner. Even, though, there might be a story there…

Brett: You also write novels under the name Nickie Cochran. Give us the names of some of these books and a short description of each.

Lexie: I got my author career started when writing the Spirits in Waiting series. These books are sweet contemporary romances with a fun ghostly twist. In The Heidelberg Ghost, Andrea reluctantly falls in love with a 400-year-old ghost, and only she can set him free from this curse that keeps him in his less than solid state.

The second book in the series is The Shadow of His Past, a love story set in a haunted house. But the bumps in the night and strange coincidences are not what you think they might be.

Finally, Her Christmas Angel, which was just released this fall, is the story of a Christmas store manager who befriends a little lost ghost boy in search of his family. Soon she has to decide if she wants to spend her evenings with the little boy, the son she always hoped for, or finally cave in and go on a date with the handsome firefighter and part-time Italian chef, Tony.   

Brett: It’s not uncommon for an author to write under different names (Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb are the both the same person, and J.K. Rowling is geared toward teens while her pseudonym Robert Galbraith is the name she uses for her adult-geared novels).  What made you choose to write under two separate names?

Lexie: I had been wrestling with the idea of publishing all books under one name, but the more I thought about it, and the more I listened to other authors, the clearer it became that it was probably smarter to keep them separate. Even though both series are sweet contemporary romances, they are very different. The Spirits in Waiting books have paranormal elements in them and take place in my hometown of the beautiful city of Heidelberg, Germany.  The Southern Storms books are straight small-towns taking place in Georgia. I think they are different enough to where maybe only a small group of readers would crossover to both, and I don’t want to confuse my readers. Although, it’s not a secret that I write under two names.  

Brett: When you start writing a book, do you always know the title before you begin writing? Or have there been times when the title didn’t emerge until later in the writing process?

Lexie: Usually, the working title for my projects are pretty close. Hurricane Beach actually started as Hurricane Season, then Twist of Fate would’ve been Tornado Season, and finally, Fire Watch, would’ve been Fire Season. However, the title Hurricane Season was already taken and that book was displayed all over book stores, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to take that name and adjusted the titles. But yes, I usually have a pretty good idea what the title will be in the end.

Brett: It’s disappointing, for sure, to realize your book title is already taken, especially if it’s taken by a more notable author, but I must say, I like your secondary titles best, so it worked out in your favor, if you ask me. Now, let’s move the conversation to novel completion. Do you ever finish a book and worry you’ll never be able to write another one?

Lexie: Not really. Planning and outlining a new story are a lot of fun for me. I love the challenge of making puzzle pieces fit, in this case story pieces, and make them flow.    

Brett: After completing a novel, how long does it take before you launch into the next one?

Lexie: Usually, I have a good idea where each book in a series will go before I start writing a book 1. After I publish my paperbacks about a week or two after the eBook releases, I often need a little bit of a break to reset as I shift into a new project. Besides, I can’t really focus much during the excitement of releasing a new novel. Once my batteries are recharged, I’m ready to jump right back into writing the next novel.

Brett: Give us a short description of your working space. Is there anything you must have to flow in the creative process? When you take a minute to look out the nearest window, what do you see?

Lexie: I actually have three favorite writing spots. When it’s nice outside, I like to sit on our covered back porch. The view is gorgeous with a large oak tree and a cute shed that looks like a small house. It’s especially inspiring to me when we have storms about to roll in. Another spot I write a lot in is in bed before I go to sleep. No judging! It’s quiet, and I usually have Alexa play ocean sounds or film scores on Pandora. It’s like having a soundtrack to your story as you write. My other favorite writing place is our dining room table, which is just far enough away from the TV where I can concentrate, but I can also talk to hubby while I do “my words.” That way I don’t have to feel guilty for disappearing after he comes off a 12-hour shift. We get to hang out, but I also get to write. It’s a win-win situation!!!

Brett: I remember the first time I cried when writing a particularly emotional scene in my Christmas novel. I wasn’t expecting that to happen, and it took me by surprise. Has this happened to you? If so, can you describe which book and scene that was?

Lexie: This happens in all my books during difficult moments. For example, when Andi has to decide to set Volker free. She knows, the minute she utters the last words, that will reverse the spell and she might lose him forever. I sobbed. It took me another 15 minutes to gather myself and continue writing.

Brett: Since Christmas has just passed us for another year, let’s talk about that for a minute. I’m the biggest “Mr. Christmas” I’ve ever met. I love all things Christmas. Since you like to write about weather phenomena, any chances you’ll ever give us a Christmas-themed novel where your characters get snowed in by a blizzard? (I know authors HATE when people give them book ideas to write about, but hey, I had to ask…LOL!)

Lexie: Ha! Here you go giving me ideas… You know, many of my readers expressed in a poll they wanted me to keep writing stormy books. The problem is, there are only so many types of disasters I can put the poor people of Magnolia Hill through. But then, a Christmas blizzard would be cool, I’d just have to get creative, because the only snow we got when we were stationed in Fort Stewart near Savannah was during the Blizzard of 93 (and that was in March). But… I have a big whiteboard hanging in my home office that can hold a lot of what-if scenarios and brainstorming notes…

Brett: You primarily write cozy romance reads. What are the chances of you ever genre jumping and writing something in a different genre? If so, what genre would you like to write in?

Lexie: I think I found my home with sweet small-towns, but I also feel drawn to write more inspirational romance in future stories, because they can give so much hope, and maybe shine a little light into readers’ hearts.  By the way, I love watching Christian uplifting movies, even though I have to keep tissues nearby every time…

Brett: If I were to drive to your home in Alabama to have dinner with the Nicholas family, what would be on the menu?

Lexie: As I mentioned earlier, having lived on the cusp of developing type 2 diabetes for many years now, I was able to prevent full-blown onset so far by eating low-carb. To the delight of my hubby, we like to throw nice ribeyes on the grill on random days. Not to his delight, I roast veggies like broccoli or cauliflower or make creamed spinach as my sides. But lucky for him, I’m a nice wifey and cook him a batch of just-right, buttery, boiled potatoes, decorated with parsley. Or on busy nights, I bake him up frozen garlic bread slices to go with his hunk of meat. Yes, we eat well and mostly from scratch. It just tastes sooo much better!

Brett: If you could spend an entire weekend doing nothing but bingeing your favorite television shows, what would you watch?

Lexie: Hallmark movies, medical dramas, and select ghost shows like Kindred Spirits or Dead Files.

Brett: What’s your favorite hobby/activity for the rare occasions you’re not writing?

Lexie: Huh? Is there anything else? Oh yes, there is!!! We do enjoy going down to the beach a couple of times in the summer. That’s where I get my inspiration or at least relax long enough on a beach chair without a laptop after wearing myself out playing in the waves. Somehow, the story ideas seem to come more easily that way.

Brett: What’s your favorite format when you have time to sit down with a book (ebook, physical book, audiobook?)

Lexie: For non-fiction, I prefer paperbacks or hardcovers, and I keep them in my many bookshelves as references. For fiction, it varies. I love my kindle on the go or when traveling, use the iPad when I read at night, or have Alexa read my kindle books to me when I drive to work or cook dinner. AI voices have come a long way, and they sound natural enough to me. The cool thing is that each device is synced to pick up where I’ve left off on another device.

Brett: We authors usually don’t like talking about our work before it’s completed, but give us ONE word that would best describe the novel you’re working on now.

Lexie: Adventure.

Brett: Lexie – Thank you very much for taking the time to be a guest on my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT blog. You’ve been a joy to get to know. Is there a date when your next novel will be published?

Lexie: I’m shooting for releasing Fire Watch in February 2022.

Lexie enjoys hearing from her readers. If you’d like to email her, you may do so at: LexieNicholas@LexieNicholas.com

If you would like to learn more about Lexie or her books, please visit her website at: https://www.lexienicholas.com/

Her books can be found at Amazon by clicking on the following links:

Cover image courtesy of Lexie Nicholas

“Hurricane Beach”: https://www.amazon.com/Hurricane-Beach-Second-Romance-Southern-ebook/dp/B08BBN4D2Q

Cover Image courtesy of Lexie Nicholas

“Twist of Fate”: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095VFNRTR

Lexie’s upcoming novel Fire Watch will be available for purchase in Spring 2022.

Cover Image courtesy of Lexie Nicholas

Cover image courtesy of Nickie Cochran

“The Heidelberg Ghost”: https://www.amazon.com/Heidelberg-Ghost-Haunted-Love-Book-ebook/dp/B0098RDV20

You can also follow her on the following social media platforms:

Amazon: www.amazon.com/Lexie-Nicholas/e/B08BC94T7P

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LexieNicholasAuthor

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lexie-nicholas

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexienicholaswriter/

Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20424666.Lexie_Nicholas

Finally, thank you for visiting my website and blog. If you’d like to check out Brett Nelson’s books, click on the Amazon link to visit my Amazon Author Profile: https://www.amazon.com/Brett-Nelson/e/B08D2C1YSC

Cover image courtesy of Brett NelsonCover image courtesy of Brett NelsonCover image courtesy of Bret Nelson

See you again in February for another great Author Spotlight!

Brett

by Brett Nelson January 9, 2022

www.brettnelson-author.com

Photo courtesy of Vera Arsic

Forgiveness—it’s a topic that has come up in conversations with two close friends in the past two weeks, and today I saw the topic in an online prayer group I subscribe to. It’s an important topic, and my conversations with good friends have me thinking about it a lot lately.

When we have people in our life, we’ll have conflict. It is as inevitable as the sun setting at the end of a long day. Sometimes conflict will arise from people we don’t like, but unfortunately the worst conflicts can come from those we admire, love, and of whom we think a great deal.

I recall a time when a person I admired said some very cutting words to an entire group of people. Not only I but a whole group was deeply wounded by unnecessary careless words. Is the person who said the words a bad person? Not at all, but people placed in positions of authority often think they have the right to speak to people however they want without consequence, out of a place of pride and arrogance. To make matters worse, an apology was never issued and the person, though they knew of the widespread hurt they caused, never spoke of it again–at least not to my knowledge–again, a telltale sign of pride and arrogance in a person’s life.

To this day, when I encounter people who had the misfortune of being part of the group that day, the conversation of that hurt frequently comes up. Why? Not because people enjoy remembering that day and those words, but because of unresolved lingering hurt from someone they loved and appreciated–someone who never loved them enough to consider that their words may have been inappropriate and harmful.

Sadly, this person’s words pierced so deep that it impacted the way I viewed them and thought of them. I still love them and would do anything for them, and I don’t want anything bad to happen to them, but the respect I once held for them is gone. I can probably count on two hands how many times I’ve spoken to the person since that unfortunate event over ten years ago, and that breaks my heart.

Sadly, the wall that went up between us that day either went unnoticed by the person, or they simply didn’t care, because they never let go of their pride in an effort to fix what they’d broken. At one point, I did get a very generic apology out of them–an “I don’t know what I did, but whatever it was, I’m sorry.”

I guess I’m grateful to have even received that, for whatever it’s worth, but that kind of apology honestly felt like a punch to the face–like pouring salt in a wound–because a genuine apology by a person with integrity isn’t generic but is specific. I know in my own life, when I’m in a position that I know I need to apologize, the apology is always heartfelt when it’s someone I love because I want complete reconciliation, not the tattered remains of a fractured friendship. I guess the type of apology you get is the person’s way of telling you just what they think of you.

For years, I avoided the person at all costs. If I saw them turn a corner, I’d turn another to keep from seeing them. If I saw them on one side of the room, I’d go to the other side to avoid contact. Not the healthiest way to deal, but that’s how I dealt with it.

Today, enough time has passed that if I see the person in passing, I can smile and exchange quick greetings, even hug their neck, but things just aren’t the same. I’m not happy to see them the way I used to, and I often wonder if they’d cared to offer a proper apology, would it have salvaged a friendship? I suspect it would have, but I guess I’ll never know. I do know that minor skirmishes over the years with this person wouldn’t have felt as monumental had the first incident been handled in a godly and healthy manner.

A friendship I enjoyed fell by the wayside, and much of the hurt over the years probably could have been avoided had someone had the guts to mutter two simple words: “I apologize.”

While it hasn’t been a pleasant experience emotionally speaking, it has taught me a valuable life lesson or two. The person has revealed themself as a fine example of the kind of person I never want to be. I never want to ostracize someone or cause further hurt by neglecting two such simple words. When I see walls come up in friendships, I never want to turn my back and leave a wall looming in the wake of disaster. To me, people are worth letting go of my pride to preserve a relationship.

Years ago, I read somewhere that the worst conflicts will come up with people we love because their words and actions weigh more heavily on our lives than a random person we’ve just met by happenstance. When a random person says something rude to us at the mall, it makes us angry in the moment, then we get over it pretty quickly because we don’t know them and will probably never see them again. Their words really don’t mean a lot to us in the greater scheme of things, and this time next week, we probably won’t remember them or their words.

It’s at times like this–when a person you love has skewered your heart with their words or actions–that the war between your flesh and the war between what you know is right begins to wage. Our fleshly nature rarely immediately wants to forgive a person who has hurt us. Our flesh often wants to hold onto the wound, to rehash it over and over in our minds, then let the hurt simmer until it has boiled over into full-blown anger and resentment. Left unchecked, this can result in unforgiveness and bitterness. Unforgiveness and bitterness can fester and quickly turn us into the type of people we really aren’t.

So, what do we do when we struggle to forgive those we love?

I think forgiveness isn’t always a “one time” deal. One time forgiveness—done and done—can happen, but even for Christians who want to live in forgiveness, it doesn’t always happen instantly.

When we’ve been horribly hurt by someone’s careless words, marginalized by someone’s actions, etc, sometimes, unfortunately, we have to forgive that person every time we see their face, every time we hear their voice, or even every time we hear their name.

As Christians, when those waves of hurt, anger, disappointment, even hate, wash over us, (we have an enemy trying to steal, kill, and destroy our lives with things like unforgiveness and anger-John 10:10) that’s when we have to immediately determine in our heart to once again forgive that person who hurt us. That’s why Jesus told Peter he must forgive a person who sins against him not SEVEN times but SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN (Matthew 18:22). This tells me forgiveness isn’t always a one-time event in our life, but sometimes an ongoing event.

In other words, when those feelings of unforgiveness rage yet again in our hearts, we recognize it for what it is and resolve to forgive them again, even when the person hasn’t apologized, and possibly never will apologize.

Let’s face it, an apology may never come because the person is no longer with us, or perhaps because a person’s pride and arrogance is too big, and they just WON’T apologize for what they’ve done (this is their burden to bear, not yours, so don’t try to carry it yourself…let THEM carry it!)

With time, I think, lots of willingness on our part, and with the Holy Spirit’s help, forgiveness becomes easier and those negative feelings become fewer and far between—even when you don’t have the apology you need.

Forgiveness is a journey we must intentionally embark on, and not grow weary with a sometimes long and painful journey. It’s not as simple as us “giving it to God” and trying to forget, but involves intentional action on our part.

Forgiveness is hard, it’s messy, and it’s painful, and we’ll probably never forget, but fight with your life to choose forgiveness, because your life’s happiness and your eternal spiritual well-being depend on it.

On the flip side, If you know you’ve hurt someone, just let your pride go and apologize—make amends! It’s hard, but not THAT hard. And “gee, I don’t know what I did, but I’m sorry” isn’t a proper big boy/girl apology. If you honestly don’t know what you did but know something isn’t right between you and a person, open a conversation and find out. It’s called maturity and just being a loving person. Forgiveness and reconciliation is a two-way street between both parties.

I’m talking mostly to myself here, but maybe someone else needs a friendly reminder, too.

In this new year of 2022, don’t be afraid to say “I apologize” when you need to say it. If someone offers a heartfelt apology to you, be kind enough to accept it, because offering an apology isn’t always easy. Let’s make an effort to be kinder to each other this year–to be more forgiving, because we all are imperfect and in need to each other’s mercy.

Blessings until next time,

Brett Nelson

www.brettnelson-author.com

Hello again, readers. Merry Christmas!

As I considered what genre of author I wanted to spotlight for the December blog, my mind immediately went to, “which authors out there write a lot of Christmas-themed books?” Makes sense, right?

Then again, anyone who knows me knows I don’t always adhere to normal conventions. I don’t want the same car as everyone else or the same shirt as everyone else. My philosophy has always been that life’s too short to blend in, to be a part of the status quo.

As I considered this blog, I thought, “what could I do for my Christmas blog that would be different?” Then it hit me–instead of saccharine sweet Christmas authors (and everyone knows I love a good cheesy Christmas novel…after all, I wrote one. Ha!) how about an author that writes scary, creepy, sleep-with-the-lights-on stories.

As a youngster, I was always a hearty reader with an eclectic taste in books. Everything from thriller to romance, mystery to apocalyptic, sci-fi to inspirational, the cereal box on the breakfast table. You name it, I wanted to read it, but a good scary book always appealed to me. By the time I hit my twenties, I think I’d read nearly every book Stephen King had written.

Growing up, my parents never allowed us watch a lot of horror movies, so the topic of scary books brings me to a memory from my childhood. I was in my early teens, maybe even a little younger, and I spent the weekend with a boy from church. I risk dating myself with this story, but oh, well. His mother took us to the local video rental store. I think we even had to rent a VCR to watch the movies on because in those days most people didn’t own them. Anyway, my friend chose “Children of the Corn” and “Silent Night, Deadly Night” as the movies he wanted to watch that evening.

His mom said, “I don’t know if Brett’s mom would want him to watch horror movies. Why don’t you pick something else.”

“My mom let’s us watch scary movies all the time,” I assured her, because I’d never seen a scary movie and wanted to.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“We watch them all the time.”

I guess my *cough* lie was convincing because those were the movies we watched that night, and I’m embarrassed to say, after watching them I had the worst nightmares ever! My poor friend’s mother had to stay up half the night with me because I was too afraid to go back to sleep.

She called my mom the next morning and told her I’d been up all night with nightmares, and after the explanation of what had happened, my mom told her it was my first time to watch horror movies because they had never allowed my brother and me to watch them. My friend’s mother apologized profusely and felt horrible, but my mom assured her it was my fault for lying, not her fault, and I’m pretty sure I was grounded for the next several weeks.

Today’s guest author, Andrew Van Wey, has written numerous novels, of which three are available on Amazon. Also, his travel narrative KEYBOARD DREAMS won a Lowell Thomas Award, which is the highest honor in the field.

I recently read one of his novels for the first time, FORSAKEN, which has been optioned for film development. I enjoyed the book and before I even finished it, I knew I wanted him as a future guest on my spotlight blog.

He has Bachelor of Arts in Screenwriting and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative writing, so it’s no surprise that in addition to writing, his passion includes literacy, education, and cutting-edge pedagogy.

It is with great honor that I introduce you to Mr. Andrew Van Wey.

Brett: Andrew, take me and our readers back to the time before Andrew Van Wey was a published author. Were you an avid reader as a child? If so, who were your favorite authors?

Andrew: I’m not sure if one can become an author—or at least a competent author—without being an avid reader as well. I was doubly fortunate in that I grew up in the 80’s and early 90’s—well before smart phones and endless digital distractions—and that I had parents and grandparents who encouraged me to read voraciously and widely; nothing was off limits. From Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark to Stephen King—whom I discovered in 3rd grade—to Tolkien and the tales of King Arthur and his court of knights to Crichton and Koontz. I can’t remember a time in my life that I didn’t have a book in my backpack and eyes on five more that would come after.

Brett: How old were you when you began writing? Was a novel your first attempt at writing, or did you start smaller and work your way into full-length novels?

Andrew: I’ve always tried to make sense of the world through stories, first by reading then creating my own. I scribbled serialized short stories in third grade about an ostrich named Birdee who wanted to become a knight and his adventures to claim the Holy Egg. By middle school I moved on to typewriters and an IBM 486 where I started really cracking out the words and stories that crossed ten, twenty, even thirty pages. They were awful, really just mediocre fan-fiction based on what I was consuming. Still, they taught me to put my butt in the chair and focus on telling a complete story, not just an anecdote.

Brett: Since you enjoy writing horror stories, I imagine you also enjoy reading horror stories. What authors in your genre inspired you to follow in their footsteps?

Andrew: Horror is such a nebulous and hard to define genre that I find half the time I’m wrestling with whether a book cleanly fits into that category of horror, or whether it falls slightly outside. Is it horror if the novel doesn’t actually have supernatural elements, such as Riley Sager? Or if it does have the supernatural, yet uses it to explore social issues rather than eliciting a sense of dread, such as Stephen Graham Jones? Ultimately, I’m not quite sure where the genre begins and ends (and perhaps that’s the fun of it), but I’ll read anything that’s well written and tells an excellent story.

Who do I admire? King, of course. Joe Hill does a great job blending horror and fantasy. J.D. Barker bills himself as a suspense author—which is a great way to keep yourself from being pigeonholed as a horror author—but his books often have an element of horror, especially his recent collaboration with James Patterson, THE NOISE. Blake Crouch is in that same vein, though he tilts more towards technothriller lately. I’ll read anything that Adam Nevill puts out.

Brett: Have you ever read a book that was so scary it kept you awake at night? If so, which book was it?

Andrew: Of course. The last one to really keep me up was J.D. Barker and James Patterson’s THE NOISE. The central mystery—what is this noise that’s driving entire towns violently insane?—along with the intensity of the novel, kept my heart racing well past my planned bedtime. I had to keep reading. Blake Crouch’s novel RUN had the same effect on me. As did King’s DOCTOR SLEEP. Often, it’s not just horror but rather the intensity of the story and subject matter that causes a visceral effect. I love it, even if I pay the next day.

Brett: For the people out there who think all horror/suspense writers must be cringey creepers who maim and murder innocent animals in their backyards for fun, tell us what a real horror writer is like.

Andrew: Horror writers are about the nicest people you’ll ever meet. They have no demons because they get them all out on the page. They’re chill.  Whenever some serial killer or Jeffrey Epstein-type is uncovered, it’s never the guy who watches a ton of horror movies and has a shelf full of Paul Tremblay novels, it’s the button-down fellow who looks like Ned Flanders yet has an attic full of lamps made of women.

Brett:  Let’s switch our attention to one of your novels. I recently read and very much enjoyed FORSAKEN. It’s a story that centers around a particular sinister work of art that shows up in the protagonist’s possession under mysterious circumstances, which I thought was an interesting concept. Without giving away any pivotal details, give us some of the high points of the book.

Andrew: FORSAKEN is a slow burn supernatural thriller about an art restoration professor named Dan Rineheart who comes into contact with a painting of unknown origins. Sent to him anonymously, he’s tasked with unraveling who the artist is and why it ended up with his name on it. This heralds a series of further events that threaten to fracture his sanity and devour his family. At its core the novel is about the decisions we make and the consequences they have. It’s about truth and deception. Professor Rineheart may not be a likable guy—he’s not a great husband, a great father, and he’s certainly a professional creep—yet he’s forced to reckon with his own deceptions and the painting’s in order to save his sanity and his family.

Brett: In FORSAKEN, one of the characters, Tamara, is a metaphysical medium. One of her methods of detecting the presence of paranormal entities is using a silver bowl and water. Is this a method used in the real world or did you make that up?

Andrew: Scrying is indeed a method believed to allow some perception of supernatural phenomena. Since the human eye can see only a small fraction of the light spectrum, other objects are used to refract light. In Tamara’s case, the mirrored bowl and water is based upon one that I saw used when I interviewed a psychic. However, there are many ways to scry, ranging from the distortion of smoke and heat over coals to the famous crystal ball.

Brett: Ghosts—do they exist or not?

Andrew: This is a tricky question for a writer who dabbles in the supernatural to answer honestly.

On the one hand, if ghosts do “exist” there would be ways to measure them. Do they displace light? Do they produce heat or cold? If they interact with the world (meaning, they can harm someone) then they can also be interacted upon by the world (meaning, they could be harmed by someone). So, that’s the skeptic in me saying that if ghosts “exist” in our world, they’re subject to our physical laws and wouldn’t actually be ghosts as we know and are scared of. Rather, they’d be closer to phenomena the Ghostbuster could fight with the right scientific tools and understanding.

And yet on the other hand, both my wife and I witnessed an end table full of books move across the floor as if being dragged by nothing at all. And occasionally our dog stares into the dark corner of our room, growling at the 3 a.m. shadows. It’s times like that where the skeptic in me becomes abnormally quiet.

Brett: What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a horror writer?

Andrew: Being pigeonholed as only a horror writer and not just a writer. Dean Koontz spent a lot of his early career trying to rub the word “horror” off his brand. Stephen King leaned into the idea of being a “suspense writer.” People are quick to form opinions about genres, and horror is one that brings up a primal reflex. Most people take a step back.

Brett: When it comes to novel writing, do you plot your entire book before starting it, or do you “pants” it and figure it out as you go along?

Andrew: It depends on the project. I’m two thirds discovery writer, one third plotter. FORSAKEN had a rough plot but took a few detours because my characters made unique decisions on their own. BLIND SITE as well. The more complicated the project, the more I try to plot it out ahead of time. I always need to know the endings as well the major events along the way. Still, I find there’s a certain amount of mystery I require in order to really get going at first.

Photo Courtesy of: Pedro Figueras; Pexels.com

Brett: Is there a story you’ve started writing but that you abandoned and never finished? Do you have plans to finish it at some point?

Andrew: Always. Whenever I kick the bucket there will be projects I didn’t finish. Neil Gaiman described his process as like a compost heap of the imagination. Sometimes you’ll circle back to them and use the whole thing. Sometimes you’ll harvest a few ideas and discard the rest. I have a shelf full of projects always composting.

Brett: Out of all the books you’ve written, is there one that stands out as being the most difficult one to write, either emotionally or technically, etc? Why?

Andrew: BLIND SITE required a tremendous amount of research to pull off. While the story has a lot of speculative elements, it’s a thriller at heart and I wanted to get as much right as I could about FBI procedure, interrogations, autopsies, neuroscience, consciousness, and near-future technology. I spent countless hours reviewing autopsy videos, sent questions to the FBI’s IPPAU to fact-check procedure, exchanged hundreds of emails. Huge pieces of research never even ended up in the story, but I’m a far better writer because of it.

Brett: On average, how long does it take you to write one novel?

Andrew: It really depends. I bounce from projects in-between drafts to give my brain some objectivity. FORSAKEN took just over a year from start to publication. BLIND SITE was two years. GRIM HORIZONS is a collection of short stories, so that doesn’t quite count.

I’ve written several other novels that are in various stages of revision as well. I print out my pages and hand edit with a red pen. I’m picky about prose. Also, I always make at least two passes near the end where I read the entire novel out loud and if anything rolls off the tongue awkward and clumsy, I revise it. I guess you could say it takes me far too long, but I’m trying to pump those numbers up.

Brett: As an author of three published novels, you’ve written several characters. Which character would you not get along with in real life? Which one would be a friend you most wish you had in real life?

Andrew: My two main characters in BLIND SITE fit this perfectly. Michaels, who is an obsessive and somewhat socially awkward investigator, would drive me up the wall. I love him, but he’s also the kind of person who would fact check a movie in real time while you’re both watching it. Caitlyn, who is blind, agoraphobic, and yet able to send her mind out of her body, is a composite character of several personalities I have known both in the United States and living in and travelling abroad, all of whom fascinate me. I’d love to spend an afternoon with Caitlyn.

Brett: When you start writing a book, do you always know the title before you begin writing? Or have there been times when the title didn’t emerge until later in the writing process?

Andrew: It changes with each project. Sometimes it hits me right away. Sometimes I don’t know the title until multiple drafts. I have a project that I’ve been working at on and off for over two years and the title is simply RV STORY. Terrible, right? I know I’ll find something better eventually, but boy does that title pain me when I see it in my folders.

Brett: Give us a short description of your working space. Is there anything you must have to flow in the creative process? When you take a minute to look out the nearest window, what do you see?

Andrew: My space is small and minimal. It’s a repurposed walk-in closet that also had an old vanity desk and drawers built in. I repainted it, slapped on some stone countertop, added bookshelves, and now it’s a writing nook that I can lock myself away, like in Harry Potter beneath the Dursley’s stairs. Since I write my first drafts in fountain pen, I have a collection in a wood stand with a dozen bottles of various colored inks nearby. It’s spartan, but when distraction is your enemy, minimal is your ally.

Brett: Let’s pretend Hollywood just called and said they want to make a blockbuster movie of ONE of your books, and you must choose which book. Which would it be?  You also get to be the Casting Director—who plays the main protagonist and the main antagonist?

Andrew: I’ve been fortunate and lucky enough to have been in this position several times actually. FORSAKEN has been optioned and is under development with several production companies with first-look deals, companies whose movies have opened on thousands of screens and whose credits include contemporary horror classics. What have I learned? I’m the last person with any level of objectivity to handle these decisions. I have particular favorites (James Franco would make a good Dan Rineheart in FORSAKEN, if you ask me). But I also have tons of blind spots.

Brett: Speaking of Hollywood, not only are you a novelist, but you’re also a screenwriter. Have any of your scripts been adapted into movies/television? Or is anything coming down pike?

Andrew:  I no longer write screenplays, so nothing coming down the pike that I’ve written. In a different life—before the writer’s strike of 2007, and before I transitioned to teaching and writing novels—I had a manager and a great pair of agents, and we had some really close calls with our projects, from movies to comics to television. But it takes a lot for a story to make it through the development process—from option to purchase to filming to distribution. As a screenwriter, 99% of that is out of your hands. There’s a saying: “In Hollywood you can make a killing but you can’t make a living.” I found that cycle of feast and famine to be exhausting. I’m far happier and more fulfilled having a direct relationship with my readers.

Brett: From the perspective of a writer, how does novel writing differ from screenwriting?

Andrew: Interiority. A screenplay is third person present tense with no interiority. You can’t really get in the character’s head. A screenplay is—at best—a really gorgeous blueprint. That’s not to say it doesn’t have literary qualities; some of the best scripts are brilliant reads on their own and can be invaluable to authors (go read BREAKING BAD). Still, a screenplay is part of a larger product, which is the final film.

A novel is the final product. It’s your words and the reader’s imagination. You can play around with tenses, interiority, perspective, metaphor, formatting, all those fun things you learn about in English class.

Time and format are another difference. Most movie scripts run between 100-120 pages (1 page = roughly 1 minute of film). A screenplay has to be Zen-like and precise in its word choice. In a novel you can stretch seconds out to last pages and bend a lifetime, like Tobias Wolff’s brilliant BULLET IN THE BRAIN. There’s far more flexibility in literature, but far more ways to make mistakes that might turn off a reader.

Brett: What book(s) are you reading right now? How many books are in your ‘to be read” pile?

Andrew: My TBR pile is probably about 25 books long. As of writing this on October 31st, I’m reading Adam Nevill’s newest, CUNNING FOLK. I’m also reading Matthew Fitzsimmon’s CONSTANCE. I just finished and adored Barry Eisler’s THE CHAOS KIND. On the Kindle, I’m reading Preston & Child’s BLOODLESS.

Brett: Have you ever killed off a character, then had “killer’s remorse?”

Andrew: Absolutely. I’ve literally had dreams where characters knock on my door and look at me with forlorn expressions, asking: “Why did you have to kill me off?” I never do it maliciously, but when stories have high stakes, the repercussions also need to be high. Sometimes that means a character isn’t as safe as we’d like.

Brett: What are the chances of you ever genre jumping from horror/suspense and writing something in a different genre? If so, which one would you like to try?

Andrew: I tend to push back against the idea of only writing a specific genre. Or, God forbid, only reading in one genre. I don’t eat the same meal every day nor listen to the same music, and I’d be quite the boring person if I only travelled to the same destination every vacation. One of my hero authors, China Miéville, made it a goal to write one book in every genre. While he’s perhaps a bit more literary than the standard genre writer, I think you can only grow as a writer by pushing yourself into new areas outside your comfort zone. Sure, maybe you’ll lose some readers on the hop, but you can also gain some as well.

As for what genres I’ll try, I have a few ideas and early drafts in literary fiction, fantasy, and romantic comedy.

Brett: If I were to drive to your home in California to have dinner with the Van Wey’s, what would be on the menu?

Andrew: I’m one of those annoying low-carb lots of meat and veggies people, so I’d marinate some steak, melt butter on some chicken and coat on a rub, and add some andouille sausages. Then, slice them up, skewer them with mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, eggplants, and jalapeños. Drizzle some Korean galbi sauce on them as they grill. Pair that with a huge Greek salad and you’re golden. I’m getting hungry.

Brett: I’m getting hungry, too! If you could spend an entire weekend doing nothing but bingeing your favorite television shows, what would you watch?

Andrew: I’d go back and watch BREAKING BAD. It’s an absolute masterpiece of storytelling. Every writer should study that series.

Brett: What’s your favorite hobby/activity for the rare occasions when you’re not writing?

Andrew: I’m an avid mountain biker so I try to get in 20 miles or so every day, sometimes just on roads, sometimes mixed terrain. Occasionally, I’ll go for longer. I find bicycling to be infinitely enjoyable and a great compliment to writing because I can spend an hour or two letting my brain do some subconscious plotting and problem solving while I peddle up hills and dodge rocks.

Brett: What’s your favorite format when you have time to sit down with a book (ebook, physical book, audiobook?)

Andrew: Physical book, absolutely. The feel of paper, the smell, the fact that it’s just me and the pages. An open book and a pair of headphones are the ultimate DO NOT DISTURB sign. That said, I also love my Kindle Paperwhite, which I read for an hour in bed every night until I fall asleep.

Brett: Have you ever read a novel and left thinking, “I could have written that better.”

Andrew: Yes, many times, whether traditionally published or independently published. Sometimes it’s a book that was rushed and maybe didn’t get the editorial assistance it needed. Sometimes, it got trimmed too much to meet a page count quota and it’s a six hundred page story in a three hundred page summary. Sometimes, vice versa. And sometimes the author is just at a point in their career where they lack the skills to pull off what the book seemed to promise. This goes for myself as well. Books are a fossil of our talents at a particular time. The trick is to keep learning, and even books that fall short of our expectations can be instructional.

Brett: Since you are a suspense writer, I can’t help but think Halloween might be a particularly fun time for you. What does your typical Halloween night look like?

Andrew: It’s usually the biggest holiday of the year for my wife and our friends. We have a pot luck, read scary stories by the fireplace, decorate, and watch a ton of horror movies. I’m sad to say this year it just snuck up on us and we’re ill-prepared. A combination of professional obligations, upcoming conferences, BLIND SITE’s launch, and the persistently irritating coronavirus dampened our plans. We’ll have to double down on 2022.

Brett: Since we’ve talked about FORSAKEN, give us a run-down of some of your other novels.

Andrew: GRIM HORIZONS: TALES OF DARK FICTION is my collection of short stories and novellas. I consider it a “reader magnet”, a way for curious readers to get a sample of my range of genres and voice. There are stories in there that would be broadly considered futuristic sci-fi, dark fantasy, quirky gas-lamp fantasy, psychological thriller, and straight up horror. Readers get it free when they visit my website and sign up for my newsletter.

BLIND SITE is my newest release. It’s a mind-bending technothriller with elements of horror. I describe it as RED DRAGON meets INCEPTION. The story centers on the hunt for the God’s Breath Killer—a mysterious entity that leaves no clues, no logical explanation… and no witnesses to its slaughter. Until a young woman named Caitlyn crosses its path. Caitlyn is twenty-six, blind, and agoraphobic, yet she has a rare talent. She can “blink”—sending her mind across earth. It’s a skill she shares with this killer, one she’ll have to use to help the investigators stop an adversary that can bend perception itself.

Brett: Most of us authors don’t like revealing too much about what we’re currently working on. You have ONE WORD to put us on the edge of our seats in anticipation of your next novel. What’s that word?

Andrew: Refraction.

Brett: Is there a date when your next book will be published.

Andrew: Not yet, but I’m aiming for one in the spring of 2022, and a sequel in the summer of 2022. If I can really crank it out, I might have three books in 2022. We’ll see.

Brett: Andrew, thank you so much for being a guest on my “Author Spotlight” blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Is there anything you’d like to say to your readers before we wrap up the interview?

Andrew: It was my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Closing thoughts: Read widely and don’t be afraid to cross genres and stretch. I know conventional wisdom says authors and readers should stay in their lane, but literature and fiction are too beautiful and diverse to stick to one flavor. Worst case? You don’t like it. Best case? You find entire new worlds to fall in love with. That’s a pretty sweet deal.

Author photo courtesy of Andrew Van Wey

I hope you readers enjoyed this interview as much I enjoyed bringing it to you. What a blessing to visit with such interesting authors every month.

Andrew enjoys hearing from his readers, so if you’d like to contact him, you can do so at: heydrew@andrewvanwey.com, or you can go to his website at https://andrewvanwey.com/. At his website, click the ABOUT tab at the top of the page, then click the words CONTACT HIM.

If you’d like to follow him on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrewvanweyauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heydrew/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5187310.Andrew_Van_Wey

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/andrew-van-wey

Book Cover image courtesy of Andrew Van Wey

His collection of short stories GRIM HORIZONS: TALES OF DARK FICTION is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BSWMPGY

Book cover image courtesy of Andrew Van Wey

FORSAKEN is available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LT35MA

Book cover image courtesy of Andrew Van Wey

You can check out his novel BLIND SITE at Amazon by clicking here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0914QP59W

Finally, if you’re interested in my books, you can click this link to visit my Amazon Author Profile: https://www.amazon.com/Brett-Nelson/e/B08D2C1YSC

Book cover image courtesy of Brett NelsonBook cover image courtesy of Brett NelsonBook cover image courtesy of Brett Nelson

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Many blessings, and I’ll see you next time!

Brett Nelson