7 Questions

This week on Open Book Blog Hop we are asking each other seven questions.  I had the pleasure of asking the amazing Kelly Williams questions and I think you’ll enjoy the answers.  

1) Which marketing technique do you favor for your books?

I’m pretty sure I haven’t tried them all yet, but so far, I really love blogging and using Facebook (Social Media). I like the interaction I can have with readers. Sure sometimes you get hit with a troll, but they don’t ruin things when your readers are so awesome, and the majority of people you get to interact with are so interesting. The other part of it that I like is the graphics that I get to make. I love doing art, so this allows me to exercise that part of my brain. It’s just so much fun.

2) How do you find inspiration for your novels? In a lot of places: a sound, a scene, a song…

It’s hard to pin point. Sometimes I have a dream, as I’ve discussed on my blog before, and it gives me a lot of juice to start writing. Then music will play into it, something said in a film or television episode, or conversation, sometimes another book. Just being out in the world is inspiring. Being alone and letting my mind wander has been as good as dreaming. The aloneness of a walk allows me to have a bit of an inner dialogue. The connections I make seem to be random, but I remember so much and make so many cross connections and concoctions from the myriad stimuli I experience day to day that it all makes perfect sense to me.

3) Self-publish or small publisher? Which one is best?

Whichever is best for you in the moment that you’re seeking the answer to that question. In 2009, I went with self-publishing for my first book, which helped me raise money to afford an editor for the second and third books, as well as a revisit for my first book. It took a few years, and a good deal of my own money invested as well, but that has led me to being picked up by an independent publisher. I’ve written a few articles on my blog about this. My advice to any aspiring authors looking for the definitive answer, is that there really isn’t one, and you’ll have to have that discussion with yourself, and the best way to do that is to get all the information you can on your options and then choose a course of action from there. It very much depends on your situation: connections, liquid assets, goals, and expectations.

4) What are you working on at the moment?

I have a few pots boiling at the moment. I’ve completed the edits on the second book in my trilogy, and expect to release it this summer. I’m featuring the first in the trilogy on Wattpad, free to readers to get them started on the series. This is exclusive to Wattpad, but there will also be an upcoming offer to get it super cheap or even free on kindle or i-Tunes. I’ve also finished writing the sequel to OP-DEC: Operation Deceit. It should be moving into editing soon. I’m of course working on my blog and trying to find time to do research for another historical work.

 5) Which 3 songs would you take with you to a desert island?

Only three?

West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys has been a favorite song of mine since it came out in the spring of 1984.

All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix (because this is one of those songs that has always helped me visualize my work).

And maybe Beggin’ for Thread by Banks.

Only three songs is really hard for someone who has over 2,000 songs, cases of cds…lol

6) Name one of your possessions that you cannot do without.

I hate to consider her a possession, but in a way, I guess that she is. Anyway, I can’t live without my dog. I will be wrecked when the inevitable day comes. She is my heart.

7) Do you believe in an afterlife?

I do. I very very much do. I remain an agnostic because of this unchanging certainty that I have about this. I don’t believe that religion, especially the dominant ones we currently have, can help us get any closer to what the hereafter is. I don’t think that there is a deity that is waiting to punish us all for the slightest transgression, or even for not believing that he/she is present. I think you’d have to be really awful to go to hell (like Anne Coulter levels of horrible person, Charles Manson, a child molester).

I explore a lot of my thoughts on this premise in my trilogy. One day, I guess we’ll all find out.

Hope you’ve enjoyed Kelly’s answers.  

Have you met Stevie Turner?  Stevie is a multi award winning author of several books. The Pilates Class, A House Without Windows and so more. You’ll find her writing compelling and her books page turners.  To see what questions Stevie answered, hope on over to her blog here and don’t forget to check out her books while you’re there.  

  

Would you like to join us on our blog hop, feel free to link up below.

 

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