1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
I have always loved writing and use to write a fair amount of poetry. It is both a way to express ideas and calming for me at the same time.
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2) What inspired you to write your book?
The Demon Secret came out of my love for horror when I asked myself “Why do Demon possess he living, there had to be a bigger reason.
3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
Have Fun in life.
4) What drew you into this particular genre?
I have always been a horror fan, so it fit me well. I even have Horror tattoos.
5) If you could sit down with any character in your book, what would you ask them and why?
Father Ellis, to better understand what made him want to sell out…
6) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
Yes, there is support out there for new writers.
7) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
IF you love to write and share with the world, kill it. If your in it for fame and fortune, you will be disappointed.
8) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?
I have three book currently in progress, but took a break to promote The Demon Secret. I will keep writing as I love to do it and have fun in life.
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About the Author
I was raised in a poor household with parents that drank beyond excess, so I found my escape in books from the world that I was brought into. Books were free from the library and I could imagine myself as a hero saving the world. When I read a book I want to be able to smell the air, feel the warmth and be immersed in the world that is before me. That is how I want my work to feel to the readers, like that are more than readers, that are part of the journey.
1.Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
I live with my retired dentist husband; my three adorable granddaughters live with their parents in Arizona. I was a teacher and a dental office manager. I’ve always written as my therapy. In retirement I put some short stories and essays on the Internet, and received good feedback, so I kept going.
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2) What inspired you to write your book?
The movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding inspired me to write about my growing up in a family building in Chicago’s South Shore. Most ethnic neighborhoods in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s were alike. Ruth Bader Ginsburg inspired me to write about women’s rights.
3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
Memories of their past. Confidence to conquer life’s problems. Be aware of what is going on in the world. Enjoy a good fiction story.
4) What drew you into this particular genre?
I mainly write family sagas, though two of my books are mysteries, and two are collections of essays. I write laughter and tears.
5) If you could sit down with any character in your book, what would you ask them and why?
Interesting question for a fiction book. I would asked my protagonist, Sherrie, “As a woman, are you better off today than you were at the beginning of the book?”
6) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
I am terrible with the Internet. Facebook is my main social media.
7) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
It is never too late to follow your dream. I was in my sixties when I started to write professionally.
8) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon
This is book number six. Book number seven will be coming out next year. It is a second book in the Laughter and Tears series. It is called We won’t Go Back. You can get my books at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Speaking Volumes, Walmart, Target, and several other online book outlets.
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About the Author
Charlene Wexler is a graduate of the University of Illinois. She has worked as a teacher and dental office bookkeeper and as “a wife, mom, and grandmother,” she said. In recent years, Wexler’s lifelong passion for writing has led her to create numerous essays as well as fiction.
She is the author of the books Lori, Murder Across the Ocean, Murder on Skid Row, Milk and Oranges, and Elephants In The Room.
Her work has appeared in several publications, including North Shore Magazine; the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry’s Vision magazine; Alpha Omegan magazine; the book and CD Famous Poets of the Heartland: A Treasury of Beloved Family Poems, Talent, OR: Famous Poets Press, 2014; and the Gazette newspaper of Chicago.
She also has had essays and fiction published on the websites AuthorsDen.com, The Best Short Stories, Cat Stories, Cats and Dogs at Play, End Your Sleep Deprivation.com, Funny Cat Stories, Funny Cats Playing, Funny Passport Stories, How Old is Grandma?, Laughter Is My Medicine, Moral Short Stories-Ethical Tales, One Bright Star.org, Scribd.com, Short Stories for Women, True Cat Stories, and Way Cool Dogs.com.
Wexler’s first novel, Murder on Skid Row, was published in 2010. It is the story of a double-murder on Chicago’s Skid Row in the 1960s. Murder on Skid Row won an international Apex Award of Excellence from Communications Concepts, a writing think tank outside Washington, DC.
Published as an e-book on Smashwords and as a print edition by Central Park Communications in 2012, Milk and Oranges, is a collection of her short fiction and essays examining life, love, and the tragedy and comedy of the human condition. Whether she is tackling fiction or essays, Wexler writes from the heart. With a keen eye for detail and a way of looking at the world a bit sidewasy, wexler’s writings in Milk and Oranges entertain while they make you think.
Milk and Oranges received a Bronze Award in the Women’s Issues category of the eLit Book Awards competition sponsored by the publishing services firm Jenkins Group Inc. of Traverse City, MI, and a rare international Grand Award in the Apex Awards competition by Communications Concepts in 2012.
In 2014, Charlene published two novels as e-books on Smashwords and Amazon Kindle: Lori, a family saga spanning several decades, and Murder Across the Ocean, a murder mystery set in England. Murder Across the Ocean also is available from Amazon as a paperback.
In 2016, Amazon Digital Services published her book Elephants In The Room, Charlene’s latest collection of short fiction and essays examining life, love, and the tragedy and comedy of the human condition.
Her short story Abracadabra Magic received a “Very Highly Commended” rating in the AuthorsDen.com Tom Howard Prose Contest, 2009.
Wexler is active with the Alpha Omega Dental Fraternity, the Authors Marketing Group, the Chicago Writers Association, Children’s Memorial Hospital philanthropy, Lungevity (an organization that fights lung cancer), the McHenry Bicycle Club, the Museum of Science and Industry, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Richmond IL Book Club, the Jewish United Fund, and the University of Illinois Alumni Association.
“I have always used writing as therapy,” Wexler said. “Now I have the time and opportunity to pursue it as a career.”
Her advice for other aspiring writers–even grandmothers like herself–is to “follow your dream. You can do it, and it’s never too late.”
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
I was inspired to go into psychiatry 50 years ago after reading a book by Carl Jung. I realized that he was applying clinical insights from his practice to construct a philosophy of human nature. So that is what I have been doing all these years.
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2) What inspired you to write your book?
Ever since I retired 17 years ago, I have been writing dense philosophical essays that people had difficulty understanding. When Chat GPT-4 first became available about a year ago, I realized that here was a tool that could help render my writing into something anyone could understand, and then last October, when DALL-E-3 integrated with Chat GPT-4 I decided to illustrate my revised book.
3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
The most important theme is to humanize severe mental illness by demonstrating that they are pathological exaggerations of everyday emotions we all know intimately. Just as important is that mental illnesses become “emotional fossils” that illustrate how our emotions and motivations evolved through the ages. Mental illnesses are a way we can empathize with our evolutionary past, like a sacred mythos.
4) What drew you into this particular genre?
My writing has always been philosophical. I am after the truth of “why we became human,” which is the name of my blog site.
5) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
Blogs like Anthony’s have been extremely helpful.
6) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
You just have to love the process of writing itself. If you love it, keep doing it and it will reward you one way or another.
7) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?
I just made a full-length movie out of “The Evolution of Human Motivations” https://youtu.be/sq9DNpiI9zQ. Next, I am thinking about trying to write a version of our “inside” evolutionary journey for young adults, or, alternatively, in the form of an epic narrative poem, like Homer’s Odyssey and the Iliad.
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About the Author
In 1971, as a surgical resident in New York, I realized my true calling lay elsewhere. Inspired by Carl Jung’s integration of medicine and philosophy, I pursued psychiatry in Washington, DC. My journey led me to working in a maximum-security prison, where an inmate slashed my face with a razor blade dramatically shifting my focus to immersing myself in Darwin’s works. This sparked my dedication to evolutionary psychology/psychiatry, participating in its early development in the late 1980s while managing a hospital-based psychiatric practice.
A pivotal moment came around 9/11, reading E.O. Wilson’s words on humanity’s need for a sacred narrative, igniting my mission to forge a “new mythos” of human nature. My work focuses on interpreting major mental illnesses as disorders of evolved emotions and motivations, supported by mainstream scientific findings in psychiatry and human evolution. Recently, technologies like Chat GPT-4 and DALL-E-3 have helped visualize these concepts. My e-book, “The Evolution of Human Motivations, An AI-illustrated Odyssey,” available on Amazon, encapsulates this journey.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
Author Lori Van Dusen shares the roller coaster that was her rise in the world of Wall Street in the memoir “Running with Grace”.
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The Synopsis
Nothing about Lori Van Dusen’s childhood indicated she’d become one of the nation’s top independent financial advisors. She was born prematurely with a genetic blood disorder. Her parents divorced when she and her twin brother were less than a year old. But her big, boisterous, loving Italian family, led by her beloved grandfather, a first-generation American with only an eighth-grade education, taught her that the only limitations in life are those we impose on ourselves.
As a young person, Lori wanted to sing on Broadway, not manage money on Wall Street. But in 1986, this quiet, serious young woman walked into the rough-and-tumble, eat-what-you-kill world of Shearson Lehman Brothers and never looked back. She fought her way to the top by thinking outside the box and working her ass off despite the jeers, insults, and sideways glances. Her secret weapon? A need to prove herself so strong she could outwork anyone.
But Lori’s trajectory to the top was not a straight, upward line; it was a rollercoaster. She hit the pinnacle of success only to have it ripped away in a legal battle with one of the biggest banks in the world. She was raped by a PhD candidate at Harvard, swindled by a business partner, and battled two life-altering medical diagnoses. None of that, though, would compare to having the two people she loved most in the world taken way too soon.
Despite the fear and pain, Lori remained hopeful and resilient. In this memorable, poignant, and inspiring memoir, she shares her lowest lows and highest highs as well as hard-earned wisdom from her bumpy personal, professional, and spiritual journey. Life was never meant to be fair, she learned, but we must keep running with grace if we are to find purpose and joy in the face of adversity.
The Review
This was a moving and compelling read. The author did an incredible job of layering this narrative and true story with a healthy balance of drama and heart. The author’s personal tale brought the detailed aspects of the financial industry to life, and her experiences while making her way up the corporate ladder were insightful and engaging.
Yet, it was the heart that was poured into this narrative that made the story so gripping. The memoir proved to be more about the trials and tribulations that the author faced both in their personal and professional life rather than a linear tale of the world of Wall Street, and this allowed the reader to connect and fully feel the emotional weight of the author’s life experiences. The tension and heartbreak the author’s life touches upon and how she overcame tragedy to become the person she is today send a sad yet uplifting message that readers can resonate with powerfully.
The Verdict
Remarkable, insightful, and engaging author Lori Van Dusen’s “Running with Grace” is a must-read memoir and business book. The heartfelt delivery of such a personal story and its impact on the author’s life and readers looking to make their mark in the world will keep people invested in this thoughtful and heartening read. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!
Rating: 10/10
About the Author
Lori Van Dusen, CIMA®, is the Founder and CEO of LVW Advisors, a registered investment advisory firm that serves both wealthy families and individuals, as well as nonprofit institutions throughout the United States. An advocate of client-focused strategies for more than 25 years, she has become the voice of reason for providing comprehensive integrated solutions in a fragmented financial services industry.
Lori began her investment advisory career in 1987 with Shearson Lehman Brothers, which was later acquired by Citigroup Smith Barney. By 2004, she had achieved the title of Managing Director with Citigroup Smith Barney. She founded LVW Advisors in 2011.
A recipient of numerous accolades, Lori was named to Barron’s Financial Advisor Hall of Fame, which recognizes advisors who have appeared in 10 or more of Barron’s annual Top 100 Advisor rankings. Additionally, Lori was ranked #1 in New York – NY State on Forbes’ 2023 and 2022 Best-In-State Wealth Advisors list, and has been ranked for five consecutive years on Forbes’ America’s Top Wealth Advisors list and Forbes’ America’s Top Women Advisors lists. In 2022, she was named CEO of the Year by Institutional Investor’s RIA Intel.
In recognition of her involvement in the Rochester community, Lori was recognized in the Rochester Business Journal’s 2023, 2022, and 2021 Power 100 list and received the 2020 Women of Excellence distinction with the Circle of Excellence honor. The Circle of Excellence recognizes a small group of women each year with longstanding, notable success in the community who are leading the way for other women. Additionally, Lori was inducted into the 2019 Rochester Business Hall of Fame and joins a prestigious list of Rochester business leaders who have been previously inducted. Lori has also been recognized by the Girl Scouts of Western New York as one of the 2019 Women of Distinction.
Lori is passionate about numerous philanthropic causes, serving on several boards focused on urban education, health and wellness and the fine arts, including the Monroe Community College Foundation Board, the University of Rochester Medical Center Board, the F.F. Thompson Health System Board, and the Memorial Art Gallery Board of Managers.
Lori was one of the founders of the Association of Professional Investment Consultants (APIC) and Citigroup Institutional Consulting. She holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst® designation, administered by the Investments and Wealth Institute® (formerly IMCA) in conjunction with The Wharton School. Lori received her undergraduate degree from Ithaca College and a Master of Education from Harvard University.
Lori is the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book Running with Grace: A Wall Street Insider’s Path to True Leadership, a Purposeful Life, and Joy in the Face of Adversity, published in 2023.
A native of Rochester, New York, Lori is a long-distance runner and an avid yogi, and enjoys decorating and savoring the area’s local music scene. She regularly cooks and hosts large Italian meals for her family and friends.
No compensation was paid to obtain the above awards. LVW Advisors paid a fee for promotional materials related to Forbes and Barron’s awards. Please see our Disclosures page for additional information.
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Interview with Author Lori Van Dusen
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
I’ve always had a connection to the page. I believe writing regularly helps me be more creative and also helps flesh out ideas. I’ve been writing regularly since university. I’ve contributed a number of white papers to my industry journals, write out every speech I’ve ever delivered and journal daily as a way to relieve stress and organize my thoughts. I will admit though, I’d never considered myself a writer with a capital W, and certainly never appreciated how hard it was to write a book.
2) What inspired you to write your book, Running with Grace?
I began writing Running with Grace as a personal journal to help with my healing process from the unexpected loss of my husband. When I lost my mom, just a short time later, I wished she had captured her life story for me before she passed away from cancer. I miss her every day, and thought if I had her with me on the page, it would be such a comfort.
I started the project as a way to capture my life’s stories for my sons, and as I shared it with people, including my sons, they all encouraged me to collect the stories into a book to publish them.
3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
Resilience, for sure. I am hoping the book inspires people to find their inner strength and embrace moving through all the things that happen to them, both the good and the horrific. I don’t think you don’t need to go through unspeakable tragedy to be wise, but as I look at my life now, I realize that I am a much wiser and more thoughtful person for going through the loss of my husband and mother.
If my book helps people even get through one day a little lighter, then I think it will have been worthwhile.
It’s been so gratifying to me to see the reviews from people who have read the book. Running with Grace is a Wall Street Journal bestseller and been praised for its “emotional power” by Kirkus Reviews and Readers’ Favorite describes it as “a story of triumphs and defeats inspiring readers to never give up.”
4) What drew you into this particular genre?
I never thought I would write a memoir. I had been toying with writing a book of business lessons from a woman in finance and I had even began an outline before my husband died.
After my husband died, I started to believe there had to be a reason all these tragic things had happened to me, and that I wanted to share the lessons that I had learned. It’s such a deeply personal book that the only way I thought to reach people was to write it as a memoir. My individual stories became chapters with the thread of resilience tying them all together.
5) If you could sit down with any character in your book (apart from yourself!), what would you ask them and why?
Without a doubt, my grandfather. I have so many questions for him that as a child I would have never thought to ask. I would love to learn more of his story–about his upbringing and how he became the person of such deep integrity. I’d also love to know what it really felt like when as a man in his middle age he became essentially the father to twin babies. I can’t imagine that was easy, but I never felt anything but love and support from him.
6) Has there been a social media site in particular that has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
LinkedIn has been hugely beneficial for me. Not only is it the only social media site I personally spend time on, but I’ve found the connections I’ve made to be richer and more fruitful. LinkedIn recently connected me to a podcast series, that invited me to do a live chat for their subscribers. To support the event, they purchased books as well as interviewed me. LinkedIn hasn’t been overwhelmed by the noise of the other social media platforms, yet. And I am hoping it stays that way.
7) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
Find a great editor. No one writes a book alone. The book writing process is much more difficult than I expected. I independently published and invested in professionals to guide me through what feels very much like the wild west process.
I also suggest an aspiring writer assemble a group of trusted beta readers who will give candid feedback. My beta readers were incredibly helpful, especially at identifying some of the business discussions that were too insider baseball for a wider audience. Every writer (and person really) has inherent biases and a diverse group of outside readers can spot them for you. Include people who don’t know you personally to get the most objective feedback.
8) What does the future hold in store for you? Are any new books/projects on the horizon?
If readers learn anything from the book it is that the old Yiddish adage “Man Plans and God Laughs” is true. It’s futile to control the future. The only thing you can control is your actions in the present. My life has played out in no way that I had ever envisioned and my hope is that this book will introduce me to an audience outside the finance community as the message is really relevant to women and men everywhere.
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
I grew up in a military family and had the opportunity to travel and experience diverse cultures. I studied sociology to delve deeper into the dynamics of human and group interactions. My curiosity expanded into studying nursing, holistic healing, and energy work. These transformative practices and studies became an integral part of my personal growth and inspired me to share my experiences and insights through writing.
I live just outside Nashville, TN with my husband, sister, and a small pack of dogs. In my leisure time, I read and listen to audiobooks across various genres. I enjoy spending time with my grown children and grandson, painting, traveling, playing hide and seek with my yellow lab, and watching hummingbirds divebomb as they compete for the feeders on my back deck.
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2) What inspired you to write your book?
I am inspired by the younger generations and the unique struggles they face with the ending of the American dream, unattainable housing/rental costs, inflation, AI, and global wars. They are much stronger than their label as “snowflakes” and have within them the ability to create the change they want in this world.
The resilient human spirit and ability to overcome adversity serve as my greatest source of inspiration. Witnessing individuals rise above their circumstances and transform into the best versions of themselves fuels my desire to learn, grow, and evolve personally and as a writer. I aspire to contribute to the collective human journey by offering hope, encouragement, and insight through my words.
3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
There are several messages I hope will be takeaways from my novel.
1) The younger generations are strong and capable of becoming the heroes of their stories and our society. Unlikely champions are born out of adversity and are not necessarily whole or completely healed when called upon to act.
2) There are people you meet who are part of your destiny. They become your circle and are often more important than the circle into which you are born.
3) Today our society is fractured on so many levels including by generations. We have all heard the Gen Z and millennials discounting “Okay Boomer” as well as the derogatory name-calling by the older generations of “Snowflakes”.
I would like a takeaway to be that there is strength in all the generations and by joining together we are all stronger and better able to redirect our attention to the true evil corrupting our world.
4) Trust your instincts when you sense a connection and when you sense bad intentions. You do not always need to act immediately but do not discount either. Keep an open mind, observe, and be honest with others and most importantly yourself. Good or bad, if people show you who they are, believe them.
4) What drew you into this particular genre?
My novel is a mixed genre of speculative fiction with elements of science fiction.
I have always been intrigued by novels and movies that make you think and wonder if that could happen in some near or distant future.
From Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World to the many Star Trek shows and streaming series from Dark to Stranger Things, we are transported to a compelling and often frightening future. Once there, in that created future, we are challenged to consider the impossible, including our own reality.
5) If you could sit down with any character in your book, what would you ask them and why?
I would love to sit down with Niamh. She is a seer and a sage. With her piercing black eyes she sees beyond the veil and the layers of reality. I think we could all benefit from her wisdom.
I would ask her about our world and society’s future, specifically, the geopolitical upheavals and global climate changes. Are we already in WWIII? Will Russia invade more of Europe? Will America fracture and fade or reunite and become stronger?
Too many questions given our current times! I would end my conversation with Niamh by asking her about personal concerns about my loved ones. Will my family be safe? Should we prepare for lean times? Will they move closer to home?
6) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
Instagram and Facebook have been the most helpful in developing my readership. I enjoy engaging directly with my readers and keeping them updated on book fairs, travel, and new projects.
7) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
Keep going and do not give up. Writing is an intimate process, even when writing fiction. You are putting your soul out on display for others to critique. It is hard not to take it personally so grow a thick skin and push through the discomfort.
Your story is worthy. It needs to be told and someone out there needs to read it!
If you are new to writing, join a writing community for support and to learn your craft.
8) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?
My future is full of books! Reading them, writing them, even listening to them. I have just finished the second novel in the Shifting Realities series. I am making revisions before I send it out to my editor. I am hoping to have Shifting Realities: The Alternates out to my readers this summer.
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About the Author
M.E. Grantham, the author, brings a wealth of life experiences and a diverse background to her writing. Her upbringing in a military family exposed her to various cultures and ideas through extensive travel. Having lived in England for two years, she was fortunate to have an English teacher who ignited her passion for literature, laying the foundation for her literary journey.
Captivated by the intricacies of different societies, Grantham pursued a study of sociology, delving deeper into understanding the dynamics of human interaction. Her curiosity eventually led her to explore nursing, healing, and energy work , including modalities such as Reiki, Tibetan shamanic healing, and multi-dimensional healing. These transformative practices became an integral part of her personal growth following her father’s passing, inspiring her to share her experiences and insights through her writing.
To refine her artistic expression, Grantham dedicated herself to honing her writing skills. She immersed herself in the writing community, becoming a proud member of both The Porch in Nashville and the Atlanta Writers Club. Here, she engages with fellow writers, sharing ideas and fostering a supportive environment that nurtures creativity.
The resilient human spirit and the ability to overcome adversity serve as Grantham’s greatest sources of inspiration.
Witnessing individuals rise above their circumstances and transform into the best versions of themselves fuels her desire to learn, grow, and evolve, both personally and as a writer. She aspires to contribute to the collective human journey by offering hope, motivation, and insight through her words.
Outside the world of writing, Grantham resides just outside Nashville with her husband, sister, and a small pack of dogs. Her leisure time is enriched with reading and listening to audiobooks across a variety of genres. She enjoys spending quality time with her grown children and grandson, exploring the joys of painting, traveling, and engaging in playful rounds of hide and seek with her yellow lab, Bear. M.E. Grantham’s life experiences and dedication to holistic healing are deeply reflected in her writing, offering readers a unique perspective and inspiring stories.
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
I LOVE to read, and one day, I thought, why not try writing? I had so much fun with it, but I never planned on publishing a book until I started to receive feedback on my Wattpad account for more.
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2) What inspired you to write your book?
I was going through a doomsday prepping phase. I really don’t know why. Intuition? The whole Covid thing started a few months after I had finished writing the book. Also, I read One Second After by William Forstchen. I loved the book, and I wanted more. So, I wrote my own with more excitement and a more sinister twist.
3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
That an EMP catastrophe is not that far-fetched. If it brings some awareness and some prepping, then I’ve done my job.
4) What drew you into this particular genre?
I’m not sure, actually. It’s just fine to write in this genre. I also have written in the New Adult genre (sort of like Young Adult). I received good feedback from that as well, but it didn’t gain the same traction as The Days books.
5) If you could sit down with any character in your book, what would you ask them and why?
I think I am all of my characters. I’d probably chat with Franks some more, though. If there is a third book in the series, it’ll be heavily Frank-centered.
6) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
I’m not that big on social media. Facebook is the only one I really use, and it’s only because I feel like “I have to.”
7) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
Think of your writing ambitions as an expensive hobby until you’ve got numerous books under your belt. Don’t expect to quit your day job after just one or even a handful of books. In other words, don’t do it for the money, but if it’s your dream career to be an author, KEEP GOING and join Facebook groups for writers to keep you inspired and receive valuable feedback.
8) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?
The sequel to The Days That Followed just came out, and I’ve got another Dystopian Novella hitting shelves soon, but I’ll probably pull back on writing for a bit so that I can read more! I read 50 books in 2023, and that was a bit of a bummer for me.
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About the Author
Hailey was born and raised in Salmon, ID. She now lives in Park City, UT, with her husband, two young daughters, and two dogs. The Days That Followed is her debut publication and is book one in a two-part series. She’s also passionate about educating herself on health-related topics and advocates for healthcare reform. When not writing, reading, or researching, she can be found in nature or having princess tea parties at home.
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
I’ve been in the sales industry for over 40 years. I have helped develop sales training programs and have written numerous articles on the subject. For years I was intrigued with a certain relative who was a family legend (a black sheep of the family) and wanted to learn more about his story. I had a desire to hear the details, so I sat with him for months and the story just fell onto paper.
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2) What inspired you to write your book?
The story was so intriguing and captivating that the urge to write it was so overwhelming.
3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
The lure of money is so powerful that it motivates people to stretch the limits of the law.
4) What drew you into this particular genre?
The motivation for the story was the rarely seen, dark world of high stakes, high pressure telemarketing sales industry.
5) If you could sit down with any character in your book, what would you ask them and why?
I was taken on a trip into the mind of Scott Newman. That gave me all the motivation I needed to bring the story to life.
6) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
Amazon and facebook have been the most successful to date. Self publishing makes it more difficult getting the story to the masses. A lot of work is still needed to reach a larger amount of readership.
7) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
I guess, for me, the only advice I would have is for an aspiring author to find a subject he/she is passionate about. That will make the juices flow and help jumpstart the writing process.
8) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?
I do have another project I am working on. It is based upon several intersecting stories of severe anxiety leading to frightening results. The working title is “Panic In The Mirror…Reflections Of A Vision Lost.”
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About the Author
David Fisher is a first time author with four decades of hands-on experience in the sales industry. He has published numerous sales training articles. The subject matter for this comical peek he provides into the dark side of this ethically challenged telemarketing industry comes from hours of one-on-one interviews with a close family acquaintance who made this his career. His detailed, true life experiences were the foundation for this wonderfully fascinating, compelling read you won’t be able to put down.
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
A: The first time I remember thinking about writing was watching Looney Tunes cartoons on TV after school. I quickly learned that the name Chuck Jones or Tex Avery meant that I was in for a great cartoon. I didn’t have any idea what a director was versus a writer but that didn’t matter. What did was the realization that real people tell stories, that they don’t just come from nowhere.
Shortly after I got into comic books, and the opening credits page in comics really let me obsess over certain writers. Some of them just told stories I liked more than others and I started following the work of people like Marv Wolfman, Keith Giffen, Frank Miller, and Neil Gaiman. After a while I got it in my head that I wanted to write comics when I grew up. I knew I’d never draw well enough to pencil them, but I’ve always liked to daydream and I had a million ideas. I hoped that if my comic book writing heroes could do it so could I.
From there I tried to write things down, but I was too undisciplined to finish anything. Eventually those ideas turned into D&D campaigns with friends until I decided that I didn’t want to have my stories changed around by the collaborative nature of gaming. I fiddled around with writing in college (first as a creative writing major, then as a journalism major) but then I let my passion fade away. Now it’s twenty-five years later and I find its back, and I’m doing want I can to indulge it.
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2) What inspired you to write your book?
A: On December 10th, 2021, my dog Scout died. My wife and I rescued her when she was two years old, and she had been a part of my life for more than fifteen years. I’ve worked from home either part or full time for much of the last decade, so she was my daily companion. Scout was a poodle, and poodles are strange dogs in that they have their person. While friendly and loving to all, Scout was never settled unless I was around, I was her person. She was always watching me, following me, and with me through thick and thin. Losing her was a real gut punch.
About a month before she died, I was sitting at my laptop as she slept quietly next to me in her bed on the floor. I remember looking at her and knowing that she wouldn’t be with me much longer – seventeen is pretty old for a dog. I turned back to my laptop and the first sentence of The Maiden’s Sleep just spilled out of me and into a word document I had open for work. I stared that sentence – “I hate kids, and yet there are two in the pile of sticks and mud I call home.” – and wondered where the hell it came from. So I followed it. I kept writing whatever came to mind and within fifteen minutes I had two pages of Bow’s voice.
That has never happened to me before.
After Scout’s death I was visiting family for the holidays. My mother could see how much I was grieving Scout’s loss and, knowing I liked to write, suggested I write a story about her. Something that would help me remember how much she meant to me. When I got back home, thinking about what my mother had said, I opened that document I had written that day next to Scout and just kept going. I completed the first draft of the story in a month.
I don’t think The Maiden’s Sleep is at all what my mother had in mind when she suggested writing a story about Scout – sorry mom. But given what I was going through it should come as no surprise that Bow’s story deals with the themes of death, loss, and grief. I also think it really captures how I found my way through such a significant loss. Ultimately, it’s a hopeful story about how those we lose live on in our memories, inspiring us to be better with their love. In that way they never really leave us.
3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
A: Yes. If things are dark, there is light ahead. Just hang on because eventually it will reveal itself. Also, it never hurts to look around for friends, you might just find some when you really need them.
4) What drew you into this particular genre?
A: I’ve always loved fantasy books, and the chance to play around in this space seemed natural to me. That said, I do feel like I cross genres a lot when I write. I can’t help it. In this case it seemed exciting to mash-up detective fiction and fantasy. I really liked the idea of solving a mystery within the confines of fantasy. When other writers do that I just think it’s a blast.
5) If you could sit down with any character in your book, what would you ask them and why?
A: Maybe Bennie. He’s such an unrepentant jerk I’d want to know who hurt him so bad that he feels like he needs to punish the world as a result. Frankly, I only hint at his history with Bow in the The Maiden’s Sleep but it’s something I’d like to explore further if I write another story with these characters.
6) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
A: I’m pretty terrible with social media so I mostly stick to Facebook. I think that’s been helpful in letting people know what I’m up to. In terms of learning things about publishing and writing, I find Reddit the most useful. There is an awful lot to learn on that site if you know where to look.
7) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
A: Oh, wow, I don’t really know. I mean, in almost every way I’m still an aspiring or starting author. I’ve been lucky enough to get a few short stories out there and two novellas, but I hardly feel like an authority in this space. I can only share that any success I’ve had getting my work published has come down to relentlessly looking for opportunities, never getting down when I hear ‘no’, and constantly trying to create the best stories I can. I can’t control if someone likes what I’m writing but I can control how good the work is I’m putting out and how I present it to others.
8) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?
A: I’m almost done with another novella about Houdini in WWI that I’m really excited about and I’m probably three fourths of the way through writing my first real novel about high school metal heads in the 1980s who get mixed up in paranormal adventures. That book has been a blast to write. Someday I would love to come back to write more stories about Bow. I have another one in mind already.
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About the Author
Michael J. Stiehl has had a lifelong passion for fiction, in particular horror, comics, adventure and science fiction, and is thrilled to finally be writing some of his own. Michael lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife, two kids and his very silly poodle Jack. When not writing fiction, Michael spends his time riding bikes, camping, reading books, obsessively listening to music and playing D&D with his friends. In short, he hasn’t changed a bit since junior high.
Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?
Growing up, I wasn’t interested in writing like many friends who kept diaries. My passion was singing and playing the piano. In fact, I had never written down my thoughts until I was a freshman in high school when our English teacher introduced us to the rhythm and rhyme of poetry. Writing poems was like creating music but with my own lyrics. It became my diary, where I expressed myself on the written page.
I stopped writing poetry after I headed to college to get a music degree. Unfortunately, after my first year, I foolishly married a senior music major, who unexpectedly changed his career right before the wedding and tossed me unprepared into the role of minister’s wife at age eighteen. Yikes! That caused enough stress to send poetry into hiding.
After several years of playing a supporting role in someone else’s life plan while raising children and slowly trying to finish my music degree, poetry came back into my life to help me express my feelings. I also began journaling, which provided a larger canvas to paint longer sentences onto the page. The more I wrote about my life in the trenches of church ministry, the more I exaggerated until I was rolling on the floor laughing at what I’d written. That’s when I realized I could write humor. Surprise!
I joined a writer’s group without knowing I would have to submit a story or poem to our group leader every month so she could deliver our writings for publishing in the local newspaper. I was writing about my minister’s wife gig, so I used a pen name to keep my identity a secret. Being in the writer’s group inspired me to change my college degree from Music to English. I finished my degree two years later. In total, it took me five colleges and twenty years to graduate.
What inspired you to write your book?
Initially, when writing about my minister’s spouse life, I thought I would someday compile those stories into a book, but after my graduation, I got divorced and just wanted to put my marriage and traditional religion behind me. However, I still wanted a spiritual life. So, for the next twenty years, I dove into metaphysics, mind-body-spirit, higher consciousness, astrology, quantum physics, you name it.
As I approached retirement, the urge to write new humorous short stories and poems about my current life took hold. I posted them on Facebook and eventually created a website for blogging. Then came the strong pull to write the book. However, when I read those old stories, I realized I wasn’t that minister’s wife anymore. I had been on a journey of self-discovery. I had overcome obstacles and reclaimed my identity. I had a much bigger story to tell. One that could help those discouraged by traditional religion but still want a spiritual life and those hiding their authentic voice out of fear of what people might think of them.
What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?
Life happens for you; you can’t get it wrong. You are more than enough to see your dreams come true. You don’t have to meet the expectations of others. You are the only authority over what is best for you.
What drew you into this particular genre?
I write primarily in the first person. Since I had a personal story to tell, it made sense to write a memoir with my own kind of humor and honesty that resonates with readers.
What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?
Facebook is the only one I have. I promoted my book once a week for 8 weeks without buying ads. The book became a #1 Amazon bestseller on the first day of the ebook pre-orders. Then again, seven days later when the paperback came out.
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What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?
You don’t have to have an ending before you start writing. It will show up as you write.
When you have an idea, write it down immediately, especially if you are in bed in the middle of the night, because you will NOT remember it in the morning.
Get seven to eight hours of sleep, and when you awake, stay in bed with an open mind for thirty more minutes because that’s when you will get the ideas and words you were looking for the day before.
To really enjoy writing, you must write regularly, even if it’s just a few words because the more you procrastinate, the more your writing project will haunt you. You don’t want that.
What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?
I’m currently focused on promoting my book. Other than that, I don’t know what is in my future, but I’m excited and open to whatever is coming.
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About the Author
Gaye Kick graduated from the University of Illinois Springfield, where she studied writing under novelist and children’s book author Jaqueline Dougan Jackson. She writes humorous short stories about finding balance and inspiration as she navigates the highway of life. In addition, Gaye is a talented pianist, singer, and songwriter specializing in new thought music. Explore her work at www.gayellenkick.com
