Interview with C.S. Lakin, co-author of ‘Deadly Dozen’

C.S. Lakin writes novels in numerous genres, focusing mostly on contemporary psychological mysteries and allegorical fantasy. Her novel Someone to Blame (contemporary fiction) won the 2009 Zondervan First Novel competition 2009 (published October 2010). Lakin’s Gates of Heaven fantasy series for adults (AMG-Living Ink Publishers) features original full-length fairy tales in traditional style. Already in print are the first books in the series, The Wolf of Tebron. The Map across Time, The Land of Darkness, and The Unraveling of Wentwater, with two more to follow.

In addition to her mysteries and fantasy series, she has written the first book in a young adult sci-fi adventure series: Time Sniffers. Her contemporary mystery Innocent Little Crimes made the top one hundred finalists in the 2009 Amazon Breakout Novel Award contest, earning her a Publisher’s Weekly review, which stated her book was “a page-turning thrill-ride that will have readers holding their breaths the whole way through.”

She recently completed Intended for Harm, an epic family sage that is a contemporary take-off on the biblical story of Jacob and Joseph and is developing a swashbuckling dog memoir in the style of Moby Dick entitled A Dog after God’s Own Heart. She lives in Santa Cruz, CA, with her husband Lee, a gigantic lab named Coaltrane, and three persnickety cats. You can connect with her on twitter: @cslakin and @livewritethrive. Or visit her author page on Facebook: www.facebook.com/C.S.Lakin.Author.

About the Book:

The DEADLY DOZEN Book Bundle contains 12 complete mystery/thriller novels by award-winning and international bestselling authors: Cheryl Kaye Tardif, Catherine Astolfo, Alison Bruce, Melodie Campbell/Cynthia St-Pierre, Gloria Ferris, Donna Galanti, Kat Flannery, Jesse Giles Christiansen, Rosemary McCracken, Susan J. McLeod, C. S. Lakin and Linda Merlino.

THE BRIDGEMAN by Catherine Astolfo

DEADLY LEGACY by Alison Bruce

A PURSE TO DIE FOR by Melodie Campbell & Cynthia St-Pierre

CHEAT THE HANGMAN by Gloria Ferris

A HUMAN ELEMENT by Donna Galanti

LAKOTA HONOR by Kat Flannery

PELICAN BAY by Jesse Giles Christiansen

SAFE HARBOR by Rosemary McCracken

SOUL AND SHADOW by Susan J. McLeod

INNOCENT LITTLE CRIMES by C. S. Lakin

ROOM OF TEARS by Linda Merlino

DIVINE INTERVENTION by Cheryl Kaye Tardif

With an individual list price total of more than $45.00 and over 640 reviews collectively on Amazon.com, the DEADLY DOZEN Book Bundle is a value-packed, rollercoaster thrill ride that takes you from amateur sleuth to detective to paranormal to ancient mysteries set in intriguing worlds and so much more.

For More Information

• Deadly Dozen is available at Amazon.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

What made you decide to become a published author?

I’d been writing my whole life, and my mother was a successful screenwriter and novelist, so it was natural for me to experiment with writing. However, I never “decided” to become a published author; I just wanted to be an author and learn how to write novels. Once I completed my first novel, I landed an agent, but it would be twenty-three years of writing many novels and having numerous agents before I got my first publishing contract.

Would you consider your latest book to be a one of a kind? How so?

Innocent Little Crimes was my third of fifteen novels. So I’m not sure if you are referring to this featured book or if you actually mean my latest book—which would be the seventh book in my fantasy series. Some of my novels are “one of a kind,” such as my YA paranormal romance Time Sniffers. But Innocent Little Crimes is a psychological mystery that was inspired by Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

Where is your writing sanctuary?

I just mostly write at home, but sometimes to get away from my dog, who wants to play ball all the time, I go to a library to work.

What do you believe a writer should not do as far as getting his or her book published?

She should not rush to publish a book that is not ready. Which means first really learning the craft, then having the book’professionally critiqued, edited, and proofread.

What inspires you?

Well, that’s a very general question. If you mean what is the source of inspiration for my writing, I would say life in general, my faith, and great novels I read.

What is one thing you learned about your book after it was published?

I haven’t really learned anything about my books after they’re published, so I don’t really understand the question.

Why do you love to write suspense?

It’s a challenge to write a suspenseful story that requires a lot of twists, reversals, and surprises. I love writing complex characters and suspense affords a way to show a lot of conflict and clashing between characters. I’ve written quite a few suspense novels, but they are at the heart relational dramas, and I think people are fascinating and what readers care about.

You’re concocting a recipe for a best-selling book. What’s the first ingredient?

A great, unique character with a very strong core need.

What’s one fun fact about your book people should know?

That this is a take-off of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, but instead of each guest getting murdered, I “kill off” each character psychologically, pushing them to the edge and seeing what they will do to get what they need.

Did any real life experiences find their way into your book?

Sure, I always bring in real people and life experiences into all my novels in some form or another. Some of the characters in this book were inspired by real people (unfortunately!). I choose locales I love, and I had lived up in the Pacific Northwest for a time, so some of the setting comes firsthand.

Aside from writing, what’s your passion?

I edit professionally and spend most of my time helping and coaching authors, to help them write the best books they can. I love seeing beginning authors become successful in their careers. I also love to read, of course!

What’s next for you?

I’m currently writing my fifteenth novel, the second in my historical Western romance series (under my pen name Charlene Whitman). I’m also about to release Shoot Your Novel, the third writing craft book in my collection. I plan to start in on a dark comedy called The Menopause Murders at the start of the year and also release another writing craft book, based on the course currently running on my blog Live Write Thrive, entitled The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction. I work full-time as a copyeditor, so finding time to write and publish is a challenge!

Book Spotlight: Hooked by Bobbi JG Weiss

Title: Hooked
Author: Bobbi JG Weiss
Publisher: Independent Self Publishing
Publication Date: July 21, 2014
Pages: 518
ISBN: 978-0990360001
Genre: Dark Fantasy / Horror
Format: Paperback, eBook, ePub, PDF

He is not Captain Hook.

His name is Jonathan Stuart, and he’s just an ornery post-alcoholic bookstore owner from Pasadena with a mania for fencing and a bad habit of disappointing his girlfriend. He doesn’t want to be in the Neverland, impossibly trapped aboard the Jolly Roger with a horde of greedy stinking pirates. He was tricked there by Peter Pan.

Pan happily invites children to come to his wondrous magical island, but he has to trick adults. No adult in their right mind would go willingly. Adults, you see, don’t have a very good time in the Neverland. The fairies and mermaids are against them. The island itself is against them. Most of all, Peter Pan is against them.

In particular, Peter Pan is against Jonathan Stuart. Why? Jonathan had better figure that out, and he’d better do it fast before his mutating memories insist that, not only does he indeed belong in this nightmarish hell of bloodthirsty children, ticking crocodiles and vengeful boy gods, but he’s never existed anyplace else.

So you see, he’s definitely not Captain Hook.

Well, not yet.

Book Excerpt:

Stuart didn’t laugh when he saw himself in the mirror this time. At first he wasn’t sure why, because he certainly looked like a lunatic who had just escaped out of a billboard for Captain Morgan rum. And then it hit him. “Everything fits.”

“ ‘Course it fits,” Smee said with exasperation. “It’s yers, ain’t it? An’ here, sar, the final touch.” Smee held it out.

Stuart wasn’t surprised to see his grandfather’s saber laying across those callused palms, tucked into a beautiful silver scabbard. “Of all things,” he said with a mixture of wonder and dread, “this makes the most sense.” His hand gravitated toward the hilt.

“Sense, sar?” Smee asked.

Stuart drew his hand back, slowly, with effort. The air grew heavier. “Oh, yes,” he replied as Smee, ever the dutiful valet, settled a red baldric across his charge’s left shoulder, the wide and heavily ornamented belt holding the scabbard at Stuart’s right hip. Stuart fought down panic. His flesh was tingling with a sudden black energy, the same energy he had felt during his ghostly saber battle that night at home. How long ago had that been?

Guided once more by its own objectives, his left hand reached to his right hip and this time succeeded in drawing the saber out. He gripped it, feeling the same marvelous balance between blade and hilt, the same eerie sense of sentience. It had him. He was on its home turf now, and he couldn’t run from it, not here. Something dark closed around him like great black jaws.

“Ah, yeh cut a fine figure, sar. The boys’ll be glad to see yeh.” All smiles and bounce, Smee plucked the saber from his hand and slid it back into its scabbard. He pulled out a rag hanging from his pocket, flapped it over Stuart’s clothes like a butler giving his master a final dusting, then propelled Stuart towards the door. “Come on, sar!”

The doorway was small. Stuart had to stoop to avoid bashing his head. The heels of the jack boots boosted him three inches beyond his own six foot height, and the wig and the hat added another three or four inches easy. He had to remain stooped as Smee led him along a short passageway, and then he went blind as sunlight — not from one sun but two — smacked him full in the face.

His eyes may have been useless, but his nostrils flared at the intense smell of salt and sea. His ears heard vast expanses of heavy canvas flap overhead while waves rippled below. The clamor of many gruff male voices all chattering at once was interrupted as Smee cried out, “All right, ya scurvy scugs! All hands fall in abaft the mizz’n!” Then Smee conducted him up the starboard ladder.

Stuart could do nothing but stumble along, shading his eyes with his hands and blinking, trying to adjust to the brilliance. As he did, he took in more sounds from below — the pounding of bare feet running every whichway, the creak of ropes, the deep grunts and moans of the vast wooden hull. When he could finally see, he found himself standing on the quarterdeck of a three-masted ship, looking down into the faces of forty or so swarthy pirates who stared back up at him, most of their mouths hanging open to reveal an alarming absence of teeth. Eight or nine more men up in the rigging hung like monkeys, gaping down at him.

Stuart gaped back. It had been much easier to deal with Smee. One man. One apparition. One entity to deny as a dream. But try as he might, Stuart couldn’t simply dismiss this motley and very real crowd before him. If nothing else, the overwhelming stench of the men couldn’t be explained away as a dream. A pig farm smelled better than this. He thought he could actually feel the hairs inside his nostrils cower down and try to flatten out rather than conduct such nauseating information to his brain.

Smee nudged him. “Say somethin’!” he whispered.

Stuart couldn’t move. Say something?

“Call all hands from below!” came a bellow from the main deck.

Smee nodded down at the man who had spoken, a handsome Italian pirate with a long black ponytail. “Cecco,” he informed Stuart. “Yer first mate an’ a fine feller.”

“I can’t take this…”

“Aw, c’mon, compose yerself, sar. Fer Chrissake, this here’s yer crew!”

Stuart clutched the edge of the rail hard enough to make his fingers cramp. “This is not my crew.”

“Sar—”

“This is not my crew! I don’t have a crew!” He glared down at Smee, noticing how the layers of heavy clothing restricted his movements. In order to tilt his head — Smee wasn’t short so much as Stuart was tall, especially in the jack boots — he had to strain against his cravat. He wasn’t used to anything around his neck, and it contributed to the trapped animal feeling he already had. He struggled for control. “This isn’t real. I refuse to believe this is real, and I am most certainly not—”

“Captain Hook!”

The exclamation came from a young boy no more than eight years old, dressed in a filthy white shirt and black knickers. Stuart turned toward the voice, squinting to see its owner against the dazzling suns. He saw that the boy had climbed up out of the hatch, his expression a strange mixture of relief and trepidation. Come to think of it, all the pirates wore that expression.

“’Course yeh remember Lil’ Lad Jack,” Smee told Stuart. “Hard worker, he is. Good learner.”

“Captain Hook,” Jack repeated, quieter this time. He almost sounded reverent.

“Hook?” Stuart spat out before he knew what his mouth was doing. “Hook?” He held up his hands. “I’ve got two hands, you stupid little brat! I haven’t got a hook! How can I be Captain Hook if I haven’t got a hook? Anybody in this looney bin got an answer for that one?”

“He’s a bleedin’ ghost!” someone in the crowd muttered.

At that, Cecco turned on a tall, lean pirate whose every inch of visible flesh was covered with tattoos, including his hands and bare feet. Even his face was tattooed, although it was half-hidden by a hat bespangled with coins, jewels and a potpourri of shiny baubles. “What’s that you say about the Captain, Mister Jukes?” Cecco asked sharply.

Feet shuffled. Someone coughed. Jukes tried to duck behind one of his fellows, who roughly pushed him away. “Nothin’,” Jukes squeaked. “I didn’t say nothin’.”

“Aye, nothing,” Cecco repeated with satisfaction. “That man up there is no ghost, ya slackjawed jackanapes!” he boomed, and the men jumped. Stuart jumped, too — Cecco might as well have been using a bullhorn, he was so loud. “That’s the only man the Sea-Cook fears! He’s the only man who ever snared a siren, ate of her flesh and lived! He’s the only man who outsmarted Pan, outsmarted the croc, outsmarted death itself, to come back and beat Pan at his own game! Now act like his crew, by thunder, or you’ll feel the kiss o’ the cat!”

A roar went up the likes of which Stuart hadn’t heard since the last time he went to a Lakers game. They were cheering him! And not one of them, Smee included, seemed to care about his obvious lack of a hook.

Purchase The Book:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hooked-Bobbi-JG-Weiss/dp/0990360008/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1411257379&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Hooked+Bobbi+JG+Weiss

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hooked-bobbi-jg-weiss/1120077616?ean=9780990360001&itm=1&usri=hooked+bobbi+jg+weiss
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/480554
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22963267-hooked

Interview with C.H. MacLean, author of ‘Two Empty Thrones’

To young C. H. MacLean, books were everything: mind-food, friends, and fun. They gave the shy middle child’s life color and energy. Amazingly, not everyone saw them that way. Seeing a laundry hamper full of books approach her, the librarian scolded C. H. for trying to check them all out. “You’ll never read that many before they expire!” C. H. was surprised, having shown great restraint only by keeping a list of books to check out next time. Thoroughly abashed, C. H. waited three whole days after finishing that lot before going back for more.

With an internal world more vivid than the real one, C. H. was chastised for reading in the library instead of going to class. “Neurotic, needs medical help,” the teacher diagnosed. C. H.’s father, a psychologist, just laughed when he heard. “She’s just upset because those books are more challenging than her class.” C. H. realized making up stories was just as fun as reading, and harder to get caught doing. So for a while, C. H. crafted stories and characters out of wisps and trinkets, with every toy growing an elaborate personality.

But toys were not mature, and stories weren’t respectable for a family of doctors. So C. H. grew up and learned to read serious books and study hard, shelving foolish fantasies for serious work.

Years passed in a black and white blur. Then, unpredictably falling in love all the way to a magical marriage rattled C. H.’s orderly world. A crazy idea slipped in a resulting crack and wouldn’t leave. “Write the book you want to read,” it said. “Write? As in, a fantasy novel? But I’m not creative,” C. H. protested. The idea, and C. H.’s spouse, rolled their eyes.

So one day, C. H. started writing. Just to try it, not that it would go anywhere. Big mistake. Decades of pent-up passion started pouring out, making a mess of an orderly life. It only got worse. Soon, stories popped up everywhere- in dreams, while exercising, or out of spite, in the middle of a work meeting. “But it’s not important work,” C. H. pleaded weakly. “They are not food, or friends, or…” But it was too late. C. H. had re-discovered that, like books, life should be fun too. Now, writing is a compulsion, and a calling.

C.H. lives in a Pacific Northwest forest with five cats, two kids, one spouse, and absolutely no dragons or elves, faeries, or demons… that are willing to be named, at least.

His latest book is the YA fantasy, Two Empty Thrones.

For More Information

• Visit C.H. McLean’s website.
• Find out more about the Five in Circle series.
• Connect with C.H. McLean on Facebook and Twitter.
• Subscribe to the author’s newsletter.
• Contact C.H. McLean.

What made you decide to become a published author?

I don’t know if I really decided; it was more like I just realized who I was. I sat down, just to consider if I could write something real, you know, something I would want to read. I didn’t think I had an idea at all. All at once, like a pop-up window, an image replaced the page in front of me. Words flowed onto the page. Hours flew by until I snapped out of it.

Later, I went back to read it. It sounded nothing like the boring or sloppy stuff I have to push through to read, but engaging and dynamic.

Then came the choice part: work hard and give something to the world, or not?

Would you consider your latest book, Two Empty Thrones to be a one of a kind? How so?

Combining ancient elements in new-age application and emotions driving a fast-paced plot, Two Empty Thrones is unlike anything I’ve read. It sounds familiar, with words like prophecy and magic. But the sound of a horse’s whinny you heard turns out to be a zebra-pegasus with a hidden agenda. (That character isn’t in this book, but could be.)

Where is your writing sanctuary?

I live in the forest, down a tree-hugged drive. At the end, it curves like a smile, giving shade and shelter from the rain. Noise of the ordinary muted by distance, imagination can frolic in magic and wonder.

What do you believe a writer should not do as far as getting his or her book published?

Two things are key. One, know publishing is a long process that involves more work than you think. I am sure everyone is familiar with that story. Two, trust yourself. I hear stories of good writers trodden down by watching their creative work be dissected, sterilized and jammed into a glass jar in an attempt to be published. Editing and the process are important and we can all improve, but you should be happier on the other side.

What inspires you?

I have no idea where the actual need or urge to write comes from. I’m sure there is some biochemical or psychological explanation, but saying it’s a calling works for me. But the actual inspiration to do all the hard work comes from hearing how other people enjoy it. To think I can be part of what makes life fun and interesting for people is such an honor.

What is one thing you learned about your book after it was published?

How much other people liked it. Until you hear from people you don’t know, it doesn’t seem real. Finding out that people think it’s great brings my childhood love of books full circle, and inspires me to do more and provide a better experience for others.

Why do you love to write YA fantasy?

Fantasy allows a unique exploration of an unlimited set of potential conflicts. In fantasy, reality is bound only by imagination. In the same way, young adults face life-changing decisions for the first time, on the edge of first discovering who they really are. They create themselves, only limited by their own minds.

But that’s more why I love to read fantasy and YA. I don’t set out to write in a particular category and just write the stories as they come to me.

You’re concocting a recipe for a best selling book. What’s the first ingredient?

Love of reading. It’s like water to life—it’s not living, but it lets everything else mix together. Without that, you have a dry and lifeless book. If the book can reignite that love for the reader, almost anything else can work. Title, plot, character, even language might be completely different from one best-seller to another, but the love will always be there.

What’s one fun fact about your book people should know?

While I intentionally didn’t include dry explanations, I found out a good deal of its magic aligns with in-this-world fact. I keep finding things in other research and say, “Hey, that’s in there!”

Aside from writing, what’s your passion?

I have many passions, with reading and writing as obvious ones. Being active in mental, physical and metaphysical arenas is what fuels all my fires. Trekking through the woods or cleaning up the forest, working to realign natural energies with my own, that’s what recharges me.

What’s next for you?

The third book in the series, We the Three, keeps me up at night begging to be finished, it’s so close to done. I am hoping to release it in the spring/summer of 2015.

I also just finished writing an intense book entitled Fire Above, a story about a young man who dared to dream and started the first human-dragon war. It is currently going through the first round of edits.

Interview with Margay Leah Justice, author of ‘The Scent of Humanity’

Descended from the same bloodline that spawned the likes of James Russell, Amy and Robert Lowell, Margay Leah Justice was fated to be a writer herself from a young age. But even before she knew that there was a name for what she was doing, she knew one thing: She had a deep and unconditional love for the written word. A love that would challenge her in times of need, abandon her in times of distress, and rediscover her in times of hope. Through her writing, Margay has learned to cope with every curve ball life has thrown her, including the challenges of single parenting, the harsh realities of living in a shelter, coping with the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, and the roller coaster ride of dealing with a child who suffers from bipolar disorder. But along the way she has rediscovered the amazing power of words.

Margay currently lives in Massachusetts with her two daughters, two cats, and a myriad of characters who vie for her attention and demand that their own stories be told. In her spare time, she is an avid knitter, knitting her way through a stash of yarn that almost rivals her tbr pile!

Her latest book is the romantic suspense/women’s fiction, The Scent of Humanity.

For More Information

• Visit Margay Leah Justice’s blog.
• Connect with Margay on Facebook and Twitter.
• More books by Margay Leah Justice.

About the Book:

Lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. In theory. But in one small town, in one family, that theory is put to the test.

Growing up in a rural town in Massachusetts was supposed to be safe, but for SILVIE CHILDS, that safety was shattered by a kidnapping attempt that forever changed her life. Now, nearly twenty years later, that sense of safety is challenged again by the kidnapping attempt on her young niece, and Silvie is left struggling with one question: How can something like this happen twice in one family?

It is a dilemma shared by NICK FAHEY, the detective assigned to the case. Arriving on the scene of the abduction attempt, Nick expects to run a routine investigation. Until he meets the victim, the niece of a woman he once considered a dear friend. Unfortunately, these days Silvie Childs can barely stand the sight of him.

Once there was a time when Silvie Childs worshipped Nick Fahey, believing he could do no wrong. Until the accident that nearly killed her brother; the accident that Nick reportedly caused. Coming on the heels of her own near abduction, the accident skewed Silvie’s ability to trust men – especially Nick. But now, with the attempt on her niece’s safety, Silvie finds herself in the untenable position of having to trust Nick to bring the kidnapper to justice.

That trust is severely tested when, after only two months, the case is closed for lack of new evidence. Feeling betrayed by the system in which she works as a paralegal and by Nick, Silvie takes matters into her own hands. Contacting local news stations to generate interest in the case, allowing herself to be filmed hanging sketches of the suspect on telephone poles, she will risk her own safety to protect that of her niece. When her efforts re-open the wounds of her past, she is once again forced to put her trust in the one man who still has the power to hurt her – Nick

For More Information

• The Scent of Humanity is available at Amazon.
• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

What made you decide to become a published author?

It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was young. I’ve always written – I never went anywhere without a notebook – so the desire to publish just naturally grew out of that.

What do you believe a writer should not do as far as getting his or her book published?

Never bash another’s book while trying to sell your own. In fact, try to avoid comparisons. You want to set your book apart from the rest, not let it become one of the same.

What inspires you?

Everything! News stories about soldiers surprising their families, new life coming into the world – sunsets. Just so many things.

You’re concocting a recipe for a best selling book. What’s the first ingredient?

An intriguing plot.

Did any real life experiences find their way into your book?

Yes, the core of the book about the attempted kidnappings is based on my own experiences. Though the details have been changed and the rest of the book is fiction, the part about me and my niece nearly being kidnapped in the same town (my hometown) several years apart is true. It’s what inspired me to write this book.

Aside from writing, what’s your passion?

Well, reading, of course, but also knitting. I am a mad knitter – love to create new things and give them as gifts to friends and family.

What’s next for you?

I am currently working on a new adult series about two people who will forever be linked by one event (her father was murdered – and his pulled the trigger) and what happens to them when they meet up again nine years later.

 

Interview with C.H. MacLean, author of ‘Two Empty Thrones’

To young C. H. MacLean, books were everything: mind-food, friends, and fun. They gave the shy middle child’s life color and energy. Amazingly, not everyone saw them that way. Seeing a laundry hamper full of books approach her, the librarian scolded C. H. for trying to check them all out. “You’ll never read that many before they expire!” C. H. was surprised, having shown great restraint only by keeping a list of books to check out next time. Thoroughly abashed, C. H. waited three whole days after finishing that lot before going back for more.

With an internal world more vivid than the real one, C. H. was chastised for reading in the library instead of going to class. “Neurotic, needs medical help,” the teacher diagnosed. C. H.’s father, a psychologist, just laughed when he heard. “She’s just upset because those books are more challenging than her class.” C. H. realized making up stories was just as fun as reading, and harder to get caught doing. So for a while, C. H. crafted stories and characters out of wisps and trinkets, with every toy growing an elaborate personality.

But toys were not mature, and stories weren’t respectable for a family of doctors. So C. H. grew up and learned to read serious books and study hard, shelving foolish fantasies for serious work.

Years passed in a black and white blur. Then, unpredictably falling in love all the way to a magical marriage rattled C. H.’s orderly world. A crazy idea slipped in a resulting crack and wouldn’t leave. “Write the book you want to read,” it said. “Write? As in, a fantasy novel? But I’m not creative,” C. H. protested. The idea, and C. H.’s spouse, rolled their eyes.

So one day, C. H. started writing. Just to try it, not that it would go anywhere. Big mistake. Decades of pent-up passion started pouring out, making a mess of an orderly life. It only got worse. Soon, stories popped up everywhere- in dreams, while exercising, or out of spite, in the middle of a work meeting. “But it’s not important work,” C. H. pleaded weakly. “They are not food, or friends, or…” But it was too late. C. H. had re-discovered that, like books, life should be fun too. Now, writing is a compulsion, and a calling.

C.H. lives in a Pacific Northwest forest with five cats, two kids, one spouse, and absolutely no dragons or elves, faeries, or demons… that are willing to be named, at least.

His latest book is the YA fantasy, Two Empty Thrones.

For More Information

• Visit C.H. McLean’s website.
• Find out more about the Five in Circle series.
• Connect with C.H. McLean on Facebook and Twitter.
• Subscribe to the author’s newsletter.
• Contact C.H. McLean.

About the Book:

With her powers growing every day, fourteen-year-old Haylwen Rightad thinks she’s safe in the magical forest. And now that she finally has the friends she always wanted, what is there to be afraid of?

But she’s not out of the woods yet. Old enemies rip through her beloved forest, threatening to haul Haylwen and her newfound friends away. Their safety shattered, Haylwen and her friends are suddenly at each other’s throats. Is the friendship she worked so hard for already ruined, or is there another, unseen enemy at work?

Haylwen and her brother must unmask this mysterious enemy before they can fight it off. But even if all their enemies are destroyed, the King of the magic users will stop at nothing to ensure he’s still in power when the dragons take over the world. And he’s hidden an enemy where Haylwen would never think to look.

If no one is what they seem, who can she trust?

For More Information

• Two Empty Thrones is available at Amazon.
• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
• Read Chapter One here.

What made you decide to become a published author?

I don’t know if I really decided; it was more like I just realized who I was. I sat down, just to consider if I could write something real, you know, something I would want to read. I didn’t think I had an idea at all. All at once, like a pop-up window, an image replaced the page in front of me. Words flowed onto the page. Hours flew by until I snapped out of it.

Later, I went back to read it. It sounded nothing like the boring or sloppy stuff I have to push through to read, but engaging and dynamic.

Then came the choice part: work hard and give something to the world, or not?

Would you consider your latest book, Two Empty Thrones to be a one of a kind? How so?

Combining ancient elements in new-age application and emotions driving a fast-paced plot, Two Empty Thrones is unlike anything I’ve read. It sounds familiar, with words like prophecy and magic. But the sound of a horse’s whinny you heard turns out to be a zebra-pegasus with a hidden agenda. (That character isn’t in this book, but could be.)

Where is your writing sanctuary?

I live in the forest, down a tree-hugged drive. At the end, it curves like a smile, giving shade and shelter from the rain. Noise of the ordinary muted by distance, imagination can frolic in magic and wonder.

What do you believe a writer should not do as far as getting his or her book published?

Two things are key. One, know publishing is a long process that involves more work than you think. I am sure everyone is familiar with that story. Two, trust yourself. I hear stories of good writers trodden down by watching their creative work be dissected, sterilized and jammed into a glass jar in an attempt to be published. Editing and the process are important and we can all improve, but you should be happier on the other side.

What inspires you?

I have no idea where the actual need or urge to write comes from. I’m sure there is some biochemical or psychological explanation, but saying it’s a calling works for me. But the actual inspiration to do all the hard work comes from hearing how other people enjoy it. To think I can be part of what makes life fun and interesting for people is such an honor.

What is one thing you learned about your book after it was published?

How much other people liked it. Until you hear from people you don’t know, it doesn’t seem real. Finding out that people think it’s great brings my childhood love of books full circle, and inspires me to do more and provide a better experience for others.

Why do you love to write YA fantasy?

Fantasy allows a unique exploration of an unlimited set of potential conflicts. In fantasy, reality is bound only by imagination. In the same way, young adults face life-changing decisions for the first time, on the edge of first discovering who they really are. They create themselves, only limited by their own minds.

But that’s more why I love to read fantasy and YA. I don’t set out to write in a particular category and just write the stories as they come to me.

You’re concocting a recipe for a best selling book. What’s the first ingredient?

Love of reading. It’s like water to life—it’s not living, but it lets everything else mix together. Without that, you have a dry and lifeless book. If the book can reignite that love for the reader, almost anything else can work. Title, plot, character, even language might be completely different from one best-seller to another, but the love will always be there.

What’s one fun fact about your book people should know?

While I intentionally didn’t include dry explanations, I found out a good deal of its magic aligns with in-this-world fact. I keep finding things in other research and say, “Hey, that’s in there!”

Aside from writing, what’s your passion?

I have many passions, with reading and writing as obvious ones. Being active in mental, physical and metaphysical arenas is what fuels all my fires. Trekking through the woods or cleaning up the forest, working to realign natural energies with my own, that’s what recharges me.

What’s next for you?

The third book in the series, We the Three, keeps me up at night begging to be finished, it’s so close to done. I am hoping to release it in the spring/summer of 2015.

I also just finished writing an intense book entitled Fire Above, a story about a young man who dared to dream and started the first human-dragon war. It is currently going through the first round of edits.

Interview with Kim Boykin, author of southern women’s fiction ‘Palmetto Moon’

Kim Boykin was raised in her South Carolina home with two girly sisters and great parents. She had a happy, boring childhood, which sucks if you’re a writer because you have to create your own crazy. PLUS after you’re published and you’re being interviewed, it’s very appealing when the author actually lived in Crazy Town or somewhere in the general vicinity.

Almost everything she learned about writing, she learned from her grandpa, an oral storyteller, who was a master teacher of pacing and sensory detail. He held court under an old mimosa tree on the family farm, and people used to come from all around to hear him tell stories about growing up in rural Georgia and share his unique take on the world.

As a stay-at-home mom, Kim started writing, grabbing snip-its of time in the car rider line or on the bleachers at swim practice. After her kids left the nest, she started submitting her work, sold her first novel at 53, and has been writing like crazy ever since.

Thanks to the lessons she learned under that mimosa tree, her books are well reviewed and, according to RT Book Reviews, feel like they’re being told across a kitchen table. She is the author of The Wisdom of Hair from Berkley, Steal Me, Cowboy and Sweet Home Carolina from Tule, and Palmetto Moon, also from Berkley 8/5/14. While her heart is always in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, she lives in Charlotte and has a heart for hairstylist, librarians, and book junkies like herself.

For More Information

• Visit Kim Boykin’s website.
• Connect with Kim on Facebook and Twitter.
• Visit Holly’s blog.
• More books by Kim Boykin.
• Contact Kim.

What made you decide to become a published author?

I’d written several manuscripts I used as doorstops. I got better with every one and wanted to see my story in print.

Would you consider your latest book, Palmetto Moon, to be a one of a kind?

Yes.

How so?

Palmetto Moon is a quirky Southern story that involves two love stories, one conventional and one extremely unconventional in its time.

Where is your writing sanctuary?

My home office looks out on the woods and a garden.

What do you believe a writer should not do as far as getting his or her book published?

Work in a vacuum. You need good honest critique to get better.

What inspires you?

Kitchen table stories. It’s a place of honesty, of love, laughter, and tears. Get a bunch of women around the table, better yet, sisters, and the stories just pour out.

What is one thing you learned about your book after it was published?

I’m not sure.

Why do you love to write women’s fiction?

I love women. I love that we’re genetically programed to love and nurture. My stories are about women helping women find their happily every after. And while I’m all for a hero with great abs riding in on a white horse to save the day, women are just better at it.

You’re concocting a recipe for a best selling book. What’s the first ingredient?

Great dialogue.

What’s one fun fact about your book people should know?

There’s a famous restaurant in Charleston called SNOB. The executive chef at SNOB, Frank Lee was kind enough to contribute five recipes that are in the back of the book in lieu of reader questions. And the hero in Palmetto Moon’s name is Frank Darling.

Did any real life experiences find their way into your book?

No

What’s next for you?

My next book is A Peach of A Pair. It’s the story of Nettie, a young college girl who is betrayed by her sister, who stole Nettie’s fiancé when she was away at college, is pregnant and marrying said fiancé. To avoid going home for the wedding, Nettie takes a job working for two fussy old maid sisters, who had their own falling out over a man when they were young. It’s a story of love and forgiveness.