Author Interview Series--Roger Leslie

Roger Leslie

Dr. Roger Leslie is a scholar in the fields of success and education. Through major literary houses, medium and small presses, and his own publishing house, Leslie has published fiction and nonfiction books in multiple genres: historical fiction, inspirational self-help, spirituality, writing and publishing, movie reference, teaching and librarianship, biography, history, and memoir.

Leslie has won numerous national awards including ForeWord Book of the Year, The Ben Franklin Award, and Writer’s Digest’s #1 Inspirational Book of the Year. At its inaugural event, Leslie received the Houston Literary Award for his body of work.

Leslie is in demand as a teacher, coach, and keynote speaker. He leads FLY (First Last Year) courses based on his blockbuster memoir, My First Last Year. He draws from decades as an author, editor, and publisher to coach writers in groups and individually. He is also a sought-after speaker for his lively, entertaining keynotes relating award-winning movies to any topic or group.

In every book and presentation, Leslie entertains, inspires, and empowers people to live the life they dream and soar toward their own ideal of success.

Marina Raydun: You have quite a resume and write across multiple genres. Do you enjoy any one vocation more than another? And do you have a preferred genre?

Roger Leslie: Every professional activity I’ve ever done revolves around books. I love all the work—writing, publishing other authors, coaching new and seasoned writers, editing fiction and nonfiction. Each role helps me become a better writer because one informs and strengthens the others. But by far, my number one passion has always been writing my own books. Striving to write the best books I can is always the most gratifying, challenging, exciting, and demanding activity I am lucky enough to spend every workday pursuing. When I first felt inspired to become an author at age 13, I expected to become exclusively a novelist. Years later, when I started writing nonfiction, I was delighted to discover how much creativity excellent nonfiction requires, too. I enjoy every genre in which I’m inspired to write. For example, I felt the spark of inspiration about two years ago to write a Christmas novel. Until then, I never even thought about writing one. But I dove in and just started. This June, No Stranger Christmas will be released. I used to love writing movie reference books. McFarland published my most recent one, Oscar’s Favorite Actors, in 2017. I hadn’t worked on any new ones since. Then this week, an idea struck, and I’ve been writing it furiously every day. Ideas are even waking me up in the middle of the night. I’m having a blast! Part of the fun is tackling different genres. If I haven’t written it before, I’m drawn to the challenge of that new experience.

MR: First Last Year is a fascinating premise. What inspired it?

RL: One night I had a dream where I was given specific instructions to live a year as if I would never experience those calendar dates again. Even as I was dreaming, I remember feeling anxious. I didn’t know if that meant I was going to die in a year! But during the dream, the instructions continued. I was told to write about my experiences as I lived that year and publish my observations and insights as a book. Finally, I was guided to then teach others how to live, really live, as I would learn to do that year. I jumped out of bed and began my First Last Year immediately. After the book was published in 2015, I began teaching the FLY (First Last Year) classes.

MR: Light Come Out of the Closet: Memoir of a Gay Soul is a book many can benefit from reading. What was the writing process like for this one, given how personal the subject matter is?

RL: In my writing book, From Inspiration to Publication, I offer a unique perspective. Instead of writing what you know, as most authors recommend, I suggest writing what you want to know. For most of my adult life, I didn’t think much about my tween and teen years because they were so painful. I left the religion of my youth because it condemned me for who I was. In recent years, I began to appreciate that my parochial education actually provided some of the moral foundation that helped form my character. So, in Light Come Out of the Closet, I decided to revisit those formative years and explore my journey from hiding from the judgment and cruelty of some of my family, my religion, and society to deciding for myself who I am and what I’m worth. As you can imagine, though painful, the experience was exalting.

MR: I imagine you travel a fair deal as a speaker. Have you ever gone on any literary pilgrimages?

RL: Throughout my years as a high school teacher and librarian, I was always writing, publishing, and speaking, and doing part-time what I dreamed would one day be my full-time career. Months before I retired, I had been booked to speak at a national principals’ conference. The month I retired from public education, I flew to Nashville and checked into the Opryland Hotel where the conference was being held. I was scheduled to speak the following afternoon. My first morning in Nashville, I got myself a cup of coffee, opened my laptop on the balcony of my hotel room overlooking a lush interior courtyard of the massive hotel, and spent the morning writing. A favorite memory of my life is sitting there writing, knowing I’d be speaking later, and thinking, Wow! This is it. I’m living the life I dreamed.

MR: Do you have a daily writing practice?

RL: I call my daily practice, “Getting into the P.E.W.” Every weekday, I pray (P), exercise (E), and write (W). I must do all three every day in order to rest my head on the pillow each night and think, I’ve had a great day. I may do the activities at different times, in a different order, and for different amounts of time, but I must do each. Generally, I start with prayer as a way to clear my conscious mind and free my subconscious to write. Then I go directly from my meditation to my writing. When I start to feel mentally taxed, I usually stop writing to work out. After a shower and lunch, I then go back to work, either to write more or to conduct related business.

MR: What is your favorite genre to read?

RL: I love personal stories that uncover the essence of the central characters layer by layer. Those types of plots most often occur in general and historical fiction. But, just as I love to write in so many different genres, I love to read them, too. I find autobiographies and memoirs especially fascinating because they offer two layers of revelation: the story of their lives, and the author’s perceptions of that story. For fun I read mysteries, and to feed my soul, I’m always reading self-help and inspirational books.

MR: What is your preferred medium when it comes to reading--a physical book or a digital one?

RL: I love both. As an author who writes at the computer and an editor who reads and responds to manuscripts on my computer, I spend most of my worktime reading digital manuscripts. It helps my brain and my eyes to get away from the computer or eReader afterhours. So, for pleasure, I usually read physical books.

MR: What does literary success mean to you?

RL: The joy is in the journey. I am eternally grateful for the awards I’ve received over the years. From most organizations, as your followers probably know, the publisher must apply for award consideration. But I’ve also received some prestigious awards unexpectedly. A few years ago, a major public library chose me as one of their inaugural honorees for a career achievement award. We were feted at a formal dinner that felt like the Academy Awards to me. While that kind of acknowledgment is extremely gratifying, to me the most meaningful success is sitting at my writing desk, day in and day out, getting to do what I love.

MR: What is the best and worst review you’ve ever received?

RL: As a rule, I don’t focus much on reviews. My theory is, “If I believe the good ones, it’s only right that I should believe the bad ones, too.” Also, once I’ve completed a book and it’s published, feedback about it doesn’t help me make it any better. So, I don’t think much about reviews of books already out because I’m already immersed in writing otherbooks. My publicist does send me the reviews that my books get from the major review journals or on Amazon or GoodReads. I will look them over to pull out quotations to use for testimonials. But I try not to take personally any comment, glowing or disparaging.

MR: What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?

RL: My car is one of the few places I listen to music anymore. So, I’ll connect my phone to the car radio and start one of my playlists. As I listen, I think about the lyrics. Sometimes I just listen to be inspired. For example, recently I’ve been listening to the Broadway cast album of Sunday in the Park with George. “Sunday” and “Move On” touch my artist’s soul. Beyond marveling at Stephen Sondheim’s brilliance with words, my mind generates new ideas I can incorporate into whatever books I’m writing. Bottom line—no surprise—even when I’m not at my desk, my mind is working through a plot or developing a character or remembering a small moment I will use during my next writing session.

For more, visit RogerLeslie.com

Author Interview Series--Diann Boehm

Diann Boehm

Diann Floyd Boehm is an award-winning international author. She writes children’s books and young adult books. In addition, Diann writes books to inspire kids to be kind, like themselves, and to “Embrace Imagination”. You can find all her books on Amazon.

Diann’s Story Garden YouTube Channel gives children the opportunity to hear different children authors read their stories. She is the co-host with Dr. Jacalyn on USA Global TV.

Diann continues to be involved in various humanitarian projects with multiple organizations. Diann was born to parents of George and Mabel Floyd in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but grew up in Texas with five brothers.

She has traveled extensively to many parts of the world and has lived in the Philippines and Dubai.

Marina Raydun: What inspired Rise! A Girl’s Struggle for More and Ruby Takes Chicago? What age is this series geared for? 

Diann Boehm: The Ruby Series is a young adult historical fiction recommended for 13-18. 

MR: Will there be a continuation to Ruby’s adventures?

DB: No, there will not be a continuation. The two books achieved the goals that I had set to inspire young girls to go after their dreams and make them a reality.

MR: You also write children’s books. How is your creative process different when writing YA versus children’s books?

DB: Excellent question. There are some similarities in my writing process. The commonalities involve determining the story’s aim, pondering over it, and beginning the writing. Where they differ is in the children’s books the story line comes to me pretty fast—I write the story and then I go back and do the editing, make sure of the reading level and then send it to the publisher. With my young adult historical fiction, I have much research to do  - time-period, setting, language of the time, clothing, cars, music, etc. I would play music from that time-period to help set the mood. I went to an antique store and looked at the furniture… clothes etc. to get a true feel for the woodwork, clothes, hats, gloves, etc. I want to be sure the reader steps back in time.

MR: Talk to us a little about your YouTube channel--Story Garden.

DB: Well, to be honest, I took some time off from the Story Garden. My mom became ill, then she passed, then we moved, and I am just now getting my energy back to interview authors once more. There are a few purposes for the Story Garden: a. When parents turn on the Story Garden for their children for reading time, they know it is a safe place. b. It gives children the opportunity to hear from the authors and hear about the book and if the author chooses, they can read their story to the viewers. c. I want to give children authors an opportunity to get the word out about their book. Marketing is the hardest thing to do and there are a million children’s books out there. So if I can help another author, then I cherish the opportunity. 

MR: Do you see yourself writing fiction for adults?

DB: Sometimes I think about it, but I cannot see anything soon. 

MR: Is there a subject you would never write about?

DB: I can’t see myself writing romance novels or murder mysteries. I admire all the authors out there who excel in that genre. My hat is also off to all historical fiction writers. Now that I have written two, I have discovered the years of work it takes to write a historically accurate book. Well done to all those authors too.

MR: How do you feel living abroad affected your writing process?

DB: I feel blessed to have traveled to many places, lived and worked overseas, and engaged in humanitarian work. For me, every experience has broadened my understanding of how we all share similarities. For example, we want peace, happiness and food on the table for our little ones. When I write my children’s books, the purpose is to work with all the children around the world, to love yourself just the way you are, to be kind to others, peace, curiosity, and to embrace imagination. 

MR: What is your favorite genre to read?

DB: I enjoy biographies. I love reading how others have made a difference no matter how great or small has made a positive difference in this world. Here are a few names you hear little about in today’s world, yet they gave a positive ripple effect for even us today. Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale, George Washington Carver, and Philip Syng Physick, MD the Father of American Surgery. 

MR: Have you ever had writer’s block?

DB: Of course, especially in the historical fiction. Sometimes I can write for a few hours and for days and then suddenly a wall goes up. I have to walk away and not think about it. Then it seems I am renewed and ideas pop back in my head and I am off and running once more.

MR: What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?

DB: Depending on the day, it could be many things but mostly, I like to turn the music on and sing in the car. I am the person you pull up to at a stoplight, and I am jamming to the music. Hopefully, it will bring a smile to the person’s face and maybe they will sing too.

Keep in touch with Diann by joining her newsletter: www.Diannfloydboehm.com

Author Interview Series-Candace MacFie

Candace MacFie

Candace MacFie, in her own words:

Born in Montreal, Quebec, I spent years backpacking and working around the world. I have a Bachelor of Commerce degree, an MBA, and worked for twenty years on four different continents and now call Calgary, Alberta home.

I got married, had kids, and things got busy. Time was moving by quickly and my kids were growing up fast. I shifted gears and quit my job to spend time at home. During the COVID lockdown, I had time on my hands, decided to try writing, and started writing the Back in a Year series.

When I’m not at my computer yelling “Just a few more pages, then I’ll make dinner,” I love hiking in the Rocky Mountains, hot yoga, reading romance novels, and making up new cake recipes. I especially like to laugh and spend time with my husband, the self-proclaimed grumpy motherf*%ker, and my three awesome kids.

Marina Raydun: Oh my God, talk to me! Back in a Year is inspired by real life experiences? How heavily fictionalized is it?

Candace MacPhie: This is 100% the real deal. I’ve changed the names of people and places I stayed and had to fill in the blanks on some conversations, but everything happened. I have detailed journals that I painstakingly wrote in every day of the trip that were my source of truth. The worst part has been to write the books using my twenty-six-year-old brain and not my fifty- year-old one. I wanted to punch past me for being an idiot. It hurt to leave in all the cringy and ridiculous things I did, but that makes for the best reading.

MR: You only started writing in quarantine. Have you dabbled before the pandemic?

CM: I’ve stopped and started this book series since 2007. I transcribed all my journals first. But then I got stumped because I didn’t know how to morph things that happened along the way into a story. Once the quarantine hit, I was able to dedicate the time to developing my competency in writing. It didn’t come easy; it was humbling, and I have a thousand versions of each book.

MR: The series promises to be five-parts. Can you share what countries will be featured?

CM: On this adventure I traveled over 100,000km, by plane, train, boat, bus, car, and overland truck. Book One: Finding Color travels through Canada, Greece, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Russia. Book Two: Life Strikes Back travels through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia, and Hungary. Book Three: Hello, I am Here travels through Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt. Book Four: Beautifully Warped travels through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. Book Five: Landing Place Travels through South Africa, Namibia, Australia, Canada, USA, and England.

MR: Backpacking through Europe in the 90s! No mobile phones, no internet--I imagine music must’ve been very important in your travels. Did you have fun playlists going while writing?

CM: Music was my link to home when I couldn’t call or track down the rare email café. I would fire up my Walkman and rotate my four mixtapes. It was clutch when you met other travelers to share music with. Loads of songs from the ‘90s appear in the books and I have a playlist on Spotify (link on my website) that I listen to often. I don’t mind background noise, like in a café or even people being busy in my house, but I find music too distracting while I write. Because I like to sing along to the words in the song rather than focusing on the words on the page.

MR: Is each installment in the series a book that can stand on its own or do readers have to read book one in order for book two to make sense?

CM: Each book has a distinct story and I’ve written them to be read on their own. Some characters cross over books, and I re-introduce them when they show up, so you don’t miss out. But if you like all the details, I recommend taking the full trip.

MR: How would you cast your characters should there ever be a screen adaptation of Back in a Year?

CM: There are loads of characters in these books. And my husband’s adamant he needs to be cast in a main role, but I had to break it to him—he’s too old. Much to his chagrin, he’s not on my list. These are the four main characters in book one – Finding Color: Candace – West Duchovny Khadejah – Priya Blackburn Josh – Theo James (sadly like my husband he’s too old for the role but it’s Theo’s edge it needs) Clive – Ed Speleers

MR: Walk us through your writing routine?

CM: I write five to ten pages. Next, edit those pages as I re-read them on the screen. Then I edit those same pages again as I listen. (Read-aloud in Word is my best friend. I never knew it existed until my cat activated it when he walked across my keyboard. Thanks, Romeo!). I move on to the next set of pages using the same approach until the book’s finished. Lastly, I review storylines. Search for words to reduce or differentiate. Final edits by listening and hard copy to the whole book.

MR: What does literary success mean to you?

CM: I get the content of the book isn’t going to be for everyone. But whether folks like the story or not, literary success for me is that the series is recognized as well thought out and well written.

MR: I know you like to read romance novels? Who’s your favorite romance author?

CM: Oh, man. That’s like asking me if I have a favorite child. Which I don’t, by the way! I’ll have to say, Mariana Zapata. You get all the feels when you read her books.

MR: What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?

CM: I’m so busy most days that when I get in the car, it’s my time to organize my brain. I run through my list of things I need to do then noodle out the best and quickest way to get it all done. Once a nerd always a nerd, I guess! And when my brain’s organized, I turn up the music and sing along.

For more on Candace, follow here:

Instagram @candacemacphie

TikTok @candacemacphie

www.candacemacphie.com

Author Interview Series--K.T. Anglehart

K.T. Anglehart

Katrina Tortorici Anglehart is an award-winning author from Montreal, with a multilingual prowess in English, French, Italian, and “Spanglish”. A dedicated academic, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, a graduate certificate in Scriptwriting, and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Inspired by the wizarding world, the land of Narnia, and parallel planes, she penned The Wise One, inviting readers to connect with nature and its ever- present magic. Her exploration of the landscapes and folklore of Ireland and Scotland greatly influenced her debut YA urban fantasy, marking the inception of The Scottish Scrolls series. K.T. Anglehart is a passionate advocate for bunnies, thanks to her late Netherland Dwarf, Magic—the inspiration behind her imprint, The Magic Dwarf Press. When she’s not writing or diving into magical reads, she revels in hiking, antiquing, and Netflix binges alongside her high school- sweetheart-turned-husband, Andy. They currently live in Toronto with their three pets: Nessie, a mysterious rescue dog from Puerto Rico, and their whimsical bunnies, Onyx and Stirling.

Marina Raydun: You are multilingual, speaking English, French, Italian, and Spanish! That’s super impressive! How do you feel this affects your creative process?

K.T. Anglehart: Growing up in Montreal, it’s considered “normal” to be bilingual in both English and French, and I consider myself fortunate to have been born into an Italian family. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have maintained and practiced it with my grandparents, some aunts and uncles, and even my little cousins as they grew up. Although I learned Spanish in high school and thoroughly enjoyed it, my proficiency currently leans more towards “Spanglish”! I definitely believe that exposure to diverse languages and cultures has broadened my perspective on life. As a writer, observation is a key aspect, and through these experiences, I feel better equipped to convey the intricacies of the human experience in my writing, if that makes any sense!

MR: What made you pivot from journalism to creative writing?

KTA: I pursued journalism because I knew I wanted to make a living as a writer, not specifically to report the news—it seemed like the more “practical” career path. Despite the program’s merits, I soon realized it wasn’t my calling. Deep down I’ve always had the ambition to write books and, hopefully, for television someday. My true passion lies in crafting characters, captivating and motivating audiences through storytelling.

MR: Your writing sits comfortably in the fantasy genre. How about your reading preferences?

KTA: I read across genres! As an eleven-year-old, I was (of course) drawn to Harry Potter and enchanted by stories blending realism with magical urban settings, like in A Discovery of Witches—and anything witchy, really—while also being a fan of high fantasy. Funnily enough, my absolute favourite book is the American classic Catcher in the Rye. I understand it’s a controversial choice, but as a teenager, it evoked emotions in me that no other book has matched so far, and I have a hard time explaining why. These days, you’ll find me immersed in books on Scottish folklore, history, and witchcraft as I work on writing Book 3 of The Scottish Scrolls!

MR: What first inspired you to write The Wise One, book one of The Scottish Scrolls?

KTA: A blend of my lifelong passions! Magic, witchcraft, folklore, mythology, and breathtaking scenery. The Wise One began as a TV script during my Master’s in Creative Writing, but when my screenwriting course ended, I couldn’t bear to part with the story. I transformed it into a book and designated it as my thesis project. As for what inspired the story and setting, my Irish high school English teacher used to regale us with tales of Ireland, and I believe that, coupled with the UK setting in the Harry Potter films, drew me to these enchanting places. The Wise One is rooted in environmental themes, and with my belief that magic and nature are intertwined, the book naturally delves into themes of environmental stewardship, which aligns with the prophecy my main character (Mckenna) is tied to.

MR: You take much of your inspiration from Irish and Scottish folklore. Have you visited?

KTA: Oh, yes! My husband, Andy, and I were planning our Ireland and Scotland honeymoon just as I was outlining The Wise One. Being there, learning about the history, soaking in the culture, and being surrounded by such stunning landscapes is what inspired so much of the storyline. I’ve now been to Scotland three times. (I’m actually here right now, working on book three!)

MR: What is your writing routine like?

KTA: I take it easy in the morning with a coffee and whatever show I’m binging, and then late morning is when I dive in. I last about three to four hours. Once mid-afternoon hits, I slow down quite a bit. That’s when I pay the most attention to the pup and the bunnies! Luckily, my dog, Nessie is a sleepy head…

MR: What is the one topic you will never write about?

KTA: Real world wars.

MR: What is your favorite book-to-screen adaptation?

KTA: If we’re talking films, The Lord of the Rings—all of them. As for TV adaptations, I think A Discovery of Witches is super well done. 1

MR: What do you think about driving alone in your car?

KTA: I live in Toronto, so mostly, I’m thinking, “How did this person manage to get a license?”

To learn more about K.T. Anglehart, please visit https://www.ktanglehart.com/

Author Interview Series-Lisa Jacovsky

Lisa Jacovsky

Lisa Jacovsky is a professor of Psychology at Union College and is working on her PsyD in School Psychology. Lisa began writing short stories when she was seven years old. Writing is a passion for her and one of the many things she enjoys. She is the author of the award winning first three books in the Lets Talk! Series, Rascal Cat Brothers, Purrrfect as I am and Spooky Ooky Dance Party. Lisa lives in New Jersey where she enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, and working on her next series, Happy Thoughts, which is going to be from Emma’s point of view.

Marina Raydun: You’re a psychologist and a behaviorist. What inspired you to pursue these fields and how do you feel this ties into choosing to write?

Lisa Jacovsky: Getting into psychology, I think, was something I became interested in during my senior year in high school. I took a few human behavior classes and loved it! I definitely did not think about going into applied behavior analysis, though. I really fell into that when I was researching masters degrees. I wanted something in psychology but originally thought about going into social work. When I was researching degrees, I found ABA. I liked the description of it and it made me feel like that is what I did in my job at the time in daycares. I always loved observing the kids and trying to understand why they did what they did. I also always liked helping the kids work on their behaviors. It just felt like a natural fit. When I started in the field that’s when I knew I had made the right choice. There is so much to do in psychology and more to behavior than just working with children. It really has been amazing to explore this field.

MR: What inspired you to write the Let’s Talk series?

LJ: I was inspired at work one day with a client. I was doing in home 1:1 ABA and my client’s mother told me about their day. They had gone to the park and my client had gone on the swings. But another little girl was trying to teach her how to swing the right way and was getting frustrated. I thought there needs to be more resources out there to help our kids learn how to interact with little ones with Autism and not get frustrated. That’s really how Lets talk! was born. My character with Autism is loosely based on that client. Then, in thinking about things, I thought why not show my world in ABA. The last company I had worked in was a residential group home organization. And one thing they asked me to do was to plan excursions. It was so much fun! That inspired me to write each book as a different activity. I wanted to show the world that these children can do it too. They are not limited by their differences. I wanted to show what I saw, the beauty in being different and have ASD.

MR: Have you written creatively before that?

LJ: I have. i’ve been writing short stories since I was in first grade. My grandmother still has copies of those as she always tells me. I have always loved to write and, with school, kind of fell off of writing my own stuff. But when I was inspired, it just poured out and it was the best feeling. It felt amazing to write these books and realize this dream I have had since I was a kid.

MR: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

LJ: To not listen to people that say you can’t make money in writing or journalism. That’s really why it took me so long to decide to write books. I never majored in it because I wanted a strong foundation for a career. I never thought to look into writing books or that there was anything like self-publishing. I just figured if I want to write again I will and it’ll be like an itch that needs to be scratched. Not something that I can make a real difference with. I would tell myself to keep going because you can do anything you want, no matter what others say about it.

MR: What is the first experience you had when you learned that language had power?

LJ: I don’t know if it was the first one, it was definitely close to it, but there is one memorable moment for me. That is when my grandmother said you helped me to understand Autism. It meant so much to me because she comes from a generation that really had no resources to go on for Autism. Her and my grandfather are the reason my whole family is so open to anyone; we were raised this way. But being open does not always mean understanding. For her to say that it meant she finally understood something that really was very difficult and different for her. That meant the most to me, and her support always has, too.

MR: What does literary success look like to you?

LJ: Literary success to me is where I am currently. My books sell but not only that, they are changing peoples minds about Autism. That is the biggest success to me. My books don’t need to be best sellers or sell hundreds of copies in one month. But if I can sell one book a month that helps a family, that helps them accept their child, friend or coworker, which leads that individual with Autism to have a better life, then I have been hugely successful. For me it is not about the quantity of sales but the positive changes that each book makes for families and for those with Autism.

MR: What is your favorite genre to read?

LJ: It’s so funny because everyone assumes, being a children’s book author, that my favorite to read would be funny or cute books. But, actually, my favorite to read are thrillers and anything supernatural.

MR: What are you currently reading?

LJ: I am reading (for the second time) Lasher by Anne rice—one of my favorite authors.

MR: What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?

LJ: Oh gosh, so many! I have three that are the most notable. All three have become like mentors to me. One helps me with my podcast. Another one helps me with marketing and any questions I have. The third has helped me with marketing and questions as well and has had me on his podcast a number of times. They are such amazing, generous and talented people. I have learned so much from them and am thankful for their friendship.

MR: How did publishing your first book change your writing process?

LJ: I don’t think it did really. I definitely have learned a lot since then about publishing and do things in that way differently now. But writing process is really the same. I write when I am inspired and don’t push myself. That way things flow naturally and because of that, it feels so much better when I write.

To keep in touch with Lisa, please check out the following:

FB: booksbylisajacovsky

insta: diverseinkbooks

Author Interview Series-Kimberley Ash

Kimberley Ash

As a teen, award-winning author Kimberley Ash would sit in her English boarding school dormitory and read Silhouette Romances with her friends. They would have passionate arguments about the kind of American hero they really wanted to see in the books, so to settle things, Kimberley wrote one. While she took great pleasure in deconstructing alpha males and exposing their chiseled but vulnerable underbellies, life and inner demons made her put away her dreams for twenty-five years. She was forty before she realized that what she wanted to be when she grew up was what she’d always wanted: a writer. So she joined New Jersey Romance Writers, took all the classes she could find, and has never looked back.

Meanwhile, to her great surprise, Kimberley was swept off her feet by her own all-American hero. Now making her home in rural New Jersey (yes, there is a rural New Jersey) with him, two hybrid children and two big furry dogs, she can be found staring into a computer screen, wrestling with plotlines and ignoring the giant dustbunnies.

Kimberley's debut novel, Breathe, was released in 2018 with Crimson Romance. Her trilogy, the Van Allen Brothers, was published by Tule Publishing in 2019. Kimberley re-released Breathe under her own imprint, Tea Rose Publishing, in June of 2022 followed by its sequels: Hold, in October, 2022, Stand in January, 2023, and Rise in November, 2023.

Kimberley holds a bachelor’s degree in French from the University of London (spectacularly useful at PTA meetings) and a master’s in English Literature from Drew University. She writes contemporary romance about fish-out-of-water characters who find home where they least expect it.

Marina Raydun: You wrote your first romance novel as a student in an English boarding school (sidenote: I think we need to know more about your experiences!). If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Kimberley Ash: Boarding school was a great experience for me, personally. I got out of the village I wasn’t happy in, learned a whole lot that I’ve been using ever since, and met friends who I’m still close to forty years later. And yes, we all loved reading romance! I would tell my younger self that it’s okay to wait until you know a whole lot more about life before you publish! The book I wrote in school became my first novel, BREATHE, but boy did it need about 30 years to stew before it could be unleashed on the world!

MR: What is the first experience you had when you learned that language had power?

KA: I feel like I’ve always known. I love words, English words particularly! I grew up in a house full of books and with a mother who loved the art of words and a father who loved a good joke. That was about all I needed! There were also some wonderful comedians who taught me the value of language: the Monty Python guys, Stephen Fry, and the Blackadder series, for example.

MR: I know you liked deconstructing male leads in romance novels growing up. What is your favorite underappreciated romance novel?

KA: Ooh, that’s very hard. I’m not much of a pioneer when it comes to reading romance, so I don’t have any secret authors to give you! But I do love the cinnamon roll heroes that have been taking romance by storm in the last few years. When a man will hold onto a woman having a nightmare, or take her kids for the day to give her a break, I just get all gooey. Talia Hibbert’s heroes come to mind.

MR: What do you owe real life people upon whom you base your characters?

KA: It’s no fun at all to be my friend or relative these days. Anything you say can and will be put in a book. Like all authors, I take people, places, scenes, smells, tastes, and experiences from my real life (and other people’s) to create my stories. For example, a few years ago I heard two stories about a man who was being physically abused by his wife in the space of one week. The nugget of that story became my hero in STAND.

MR: What’s the most difficult part about writing characters from the opposite sex?

KA: Without a man to tell you every single thing that goes through his mind (and I don’t think any of us want that, or vice versa!), we have to take an educated guess. I like my men to be intelligent and aware of their own feelings, so while of course they need to learn a thing or two and my heroines are the perfect ones to teach them, generally they’re pretty mature. No one likes a manbaby. (I’m looking at you, Kylo Ren.)

MR: What’s the best and worst book review you’ve ever received?

KA: Oh I have a good worst one. And the awful thing about it was that they were kind of right. In Breathe, my heroine is traumatized from an attack on her back home. So she has a heightened trauma response to any man coming near her. The hero tries to find out what happened and to help her not to react so strongly. But I wrote the story right before #MeToo came out, and in light of that, my hero’s attempts to “calm her down” were bull-headed and stupid. I changed it when I got the rights back and re-released it on my own, but this reviewer was really mad at him. And my best review was for the same book! Library Journal said “In the midst of the #MeToo movement and a lack of celebrity privacy, no romance could be more apropos for exploring these issues. Libraries should add this debut novel to their romance collection.” So there you go! Everyone reads books in different ways.

MR: Is romance your favorite genre to read as well? Any favorite authors?

KA: Definitely. I like my stories to have happy endings. There’s enough sadness in the world. You can run me through the mill a little, but I want to be sure it’s all going to be okay in the end. Some authors whose books I’ve loved recently are Helen Hoang, Farrah Rochon, Mhairi McFarlane, Erin Sterling, and Lily Chu.

MR: What are you currently reading?

KA: Right now I’m reading Lady Chatterley’s Lover, for a class I’m going to be teaching in the Spring. The only thing I can say about it is that I thought the pearl-clutchers of the 1920s were overreacting at its content. Well, it does indeed go into subjects no other book of the time dared to! And it’s flipping brilliant for it. After all my contemporary reads recently, it’s fun to get into an ‘historical’ mindset.

MR: If you could have drinks with any person, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

KA: Oh my. I would love to make Virginia Woolf feel better about the world. And get her some medication! I wish I knew exactly what Shakespeare did and didn’t write. And there are many contemporary authors I’d love to have a drink with, but I’d probably embarrass myself fangirling all over them.

You can reach Kimberley Ash at www.kimberleyash.com, and on Facebook, Instagram, BookBub, Tiktok, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Author Interview Series-Sarah Budd

Sarah Budd

Sarah Budd  grew up in Cornwall surrounded by myths and legends. She has always been fascinated by anything out of the ordinary. Her work has appeared in over twenty magazines including NoSleep Podcast, Diabolica Britannica, Tales to Terrify, Aphotic Realm, Sanitarium Magazine, Dark Fire Fiction, Mystic Blue Review, Siren’s Call Publications, Deadman’s Tome, Innersins, Aphelion, Bewildering Stories and Blood Moon Rising Magazine.

 Marina Raydun: Your bio says you grew up surround by myths and legends. Can you give us some examples?

 Sarah Budd: Cornwall is home to Tintagel Castle, home to King Arthur the legendary warrior king who aided by Merlin, a powerful sorcerer fought giants, witches, monsters, and dragons whilst on his daring adventures. Legend says that today he sleeps under Glastonbury Tor waiting to called upon once again.

MR: Enter the Darkness sounds deliciously creepy and intriguing. What inspired you to write this one?

SB: One day I visited Chislehurst Caves and I immediately fell in love with the place. The caves are so eerie and subject to so many ghosts and hauntings, it’s the perfect setting for a horror novel and really compelled me to write about it. I wanted to create a fast action-packed ride through the dark caves.

MR: What is your favorite underappreciated novel within the horror genre?

SB: Ooh this is a tricky question as I’m a huge fan of indie horror and I think there’s hundreds of indie horror books that deserve way more praise and attention. My favourite horror author of all time is Adam Neville and I think he deserves to be as famous as Stephen King.

I recently read A Different Darkness and Other Abominations by Luigi Musolino from Valancourt Books which really blew me away. I also recently read The Devil’s Pocket Book by Ross Jeffery which is folk horror at its finest. Catherine McCarthy has two new books coming out soon, Mosaic, and A Moonlight Path of Madness which I’m really excited about.

MR: Do real life people inspire your characters?

SB: It would be terrifying if they did as I love to write about people that are very unhinged! All my characters are plucked out of thin air. I like my characters to be deeply flawed and complicated, I don’t believe in the concept of goodies vs baddies. We’re all people at the end of the day and we’re all capable of doing good and bad things. A good person can do something bad and vice versa.

 MR: What was the hardest scene to write?

 SB: In Enter the Darkness writing the final chapter was the hardest scene as it was hard saying goodbye to the book, and I also wanted to make sure it was impactful. I also found the White Lady hard to write as I wanted to make her terrifying for my readers.

MR: What is your favorite genre to read?

SB: My favourite genre is horror, but I love to read all genres. I love anything from classics to contemporary. I’m a big fan of Daphne Du Maurier, Gwendoline Riley, Gwendoline Kiste, Emma Forrest, the Bronte Sister’s and Kirsty Logan.

MR: What are you currently reading?

SB: I have just started reading Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Mosfegh, Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz. I can’t just read one book at a time, and I always have to be reading  a book!

MR: How did publishing your first book change your writing process?

SB: I think having a book published made me realise that I have an audience, in a way it has inspired me to write more but also now I feel a little self-conscious!

 MR: Is there a thing you’ve written that makes you cringe now?

 SB: There are so many short stories I have written that make me cringe, but I think that’s a good thing as it shows how my writing has progressed through the years.

MR: Is there a book you wish you’d written?

SB: The one that springs to mind was Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough. I watched it first on Netflix and when it all fits together I literally lay awake that night thinking how genius it was. So simple yet so effective. I absolutely love that book!

For more information, please visit:

Twitter: @SjbuddJ

Website: http://www.sjbudd.co.uk/

Author Interview Series-Francesca Maria

Francesca Maria

Francesca Maria writes dark fiction surrounded by cats near the Pacific Ocean. She is the creator of the Black Cat Chronicles, a true horror comic book series narrated by a mystical black cat. And her short story collection-They Hide: Short Stories to Tell in the Dark will be out in April 2023 from Brigid’s Gate Press. Her short stories and essays can be found in Crystal Lake Publishing’s Shallow Waters series and anthologies and Death’s Garden Revisited.

Marina Raydun: First of all, let's talk black cats and why we love and are inspired by them! 

Francesca Maria: Black cats rule. They really do. They are smart, aloof, loving, snuggly and wickedly beautiful. Every black cat that I've met has had their own unique personality and dare I say, style about them. There's just a certain swagger that black cats have that I don't find in other cats or other animals for that matter. It's like they know they're badass and aren't afraid to flaunt it.  

MR: What is the target audience for your Black Cat Chronicles?

FM: Adults and older teens who are fans of horror, Tales from the Crypt, true crime stuff, paranormal shows, etc. would hopefully dig Black Cat Chronicles. Each true tail (ha, get it?) is a mixture of horror, the supernatural and a mystery all rolled up into one single issue. We have three so far and the fourth is on its way. They are stand alone issues, meaning, you don't have to read them all or in order as each one is its own complete story. The first issue takes place at the Greyfriars Cemetery in Scotland - a renowned haunted and evil place, the second in Alaska and a little fishing town called Port Chatham that ups and vanishes and the third is about the weird and secret military missions in Antarctica during and after WWII. They are all true stories and as we state in our tagline: Truth is Scarier than Fiction!

MR: Have you really been writing horror stories since the age of six? What was your parents' reaction?

FM: Yes I have. As soon as I learned to pick up a pen and write, I wrote about a group of kids who stumbled onto a haunted house at the end of a cul-de-sac. It was a 10-pager and pretty impressive for a six year old. I wish I still had it, but alas, it's lost to time. And I don't really remember my parents reacting to my little tales, but I'm sure my mom was proud. I am the youngest of five kids and by the time I came around, I think my parents were just happy that I didn't sprout two heads, so writing scary stuff was the least of their concerns. 

MR: Does your bio imply that your childhood house was haunted? Can we delve into that a little bit?

FM: Sure and yes. I did indeed grow up in a haunted house: lights flickering on and off, TVs going static and turning on by themselves, doors slamming, knocks and phantom footsteps, rattling and scratching from within closet doors. It was pretty scary. And we never talked about it growing up. I think we were partially afraid that if we talked about it, it would get worse. But also, our parents never believed us so we were reprimanded for talking about it. My parents didn't want my older siblings to scare us younger ones. We never did find out what caused the haunting. I lived in that house from ages 0 - 14 and the fear and sense of 'presence' never let up once. It wasn't until I moved into a new home that I finally learned what it meant to be 'alone'.  

MR: How do your abilities as a psychic medium inform your storytelling?

FM: Being a psychic I feel things a lot more than perhaps most. When I blend with the energy of a spirit I can feel their pain, their emotion, their joy, their sadness. So it's like I get to be a voyeur into someone else's life. Those real feelings of loss, pain, intense emotions can and sometimes do inform my writing. More often it's my work as a psychic detective that helps with my horror writing and vice versa. I sometimes get asked by clients to help find a lost loved one or provide answers to a mystery surrounding a suspicious death or missing person. As a horror writer, my ability to think about the worst case scenario - what horrible things people can do to each other -  opens up the world of possibilities to what can happen in a missing person or murder case. Because I'm already experienced in seeing and exploring the nature of evil, those things that lurk in the shadows, the dark places, it's easier for me to see what might happen in a case. And working on real cases and hearing the true horror that takes place in the world often does make its way back into my writing. 

MR: You write horror but what is your favorite genre to read?

FM: 100% Horror, all the time, all day and night long. Especially horror short stories and God love him, any and all things Neil Gaiman. Gaiman straddles the line between fantasy and horror, but if anyone has read anything by him, think Coraline, Ocean at the End of the Lane, Graveyard Book, Sandman, these are straight up horror books, in my opinion. Yes, they cross genres, but to me, they land squarely in the horror realm.  

MR: Is there a book that cemented you as a writer?

FM: Hmmm....good question. I can't say for certain, but Salem's Lot by Stephen King definitely left a mark. I don't know that it inspired me to become a writer but it did open up my eyes to what was possible with writing. It was the first book I read where I can remember actually feeling something while reading it, something visceral that took me a long time to unravel. It was pretty heady for a kid of about twelve. 

MR: Can you talk a little bit about your latest book, a collection of short stories called, They Hide?

FM: I'd be happy to. THEY HIDE: Short Stories to Tell in the Dark, is a collection of 13 tales that weave through the shadows, exploring the nature of fear, powerlessness, and control. THEY HIDE is my love letter to horror tropes. Each story tackles a beloved trope: witches, vampires, mummies, werewolves, ghosts, demons, cryptids and more. I wanted to challenge myself and see if I had anything new and different to say about these well-worn tropes. I'm really proud of how it came out. I wrote it during the pandemic lock-own and it really helped me cope with the fear and anxieties I had at the time. 

 MR: Is there a book that your readers may be surprised to learn you love?

FM: Batman. I am a big comic book nerd. For 19 years I co-ran Black Cat Comics, a comic book store in northern California with my husband Causey. I'm a huge fan of Tom King's run of Batman. Those comics: War of Jokes and Riddles and The Wedding were some of the best stuff I've ever read, in any medium. It makes me angry how good they are. 

MR: Is there one topic you would never write about? Why?

FM: Everyone has their triggers and mine is animal cruelty. It's so weird that a lot of us horror writers can write horrific things about people all day long, but the minute we talk about abuse of an animal I'm out, and I'm not the only one. I just can't. I am a cat lover and love all animals and can't bring myself to read or write about animal cruelty. If there's a scene in a movie where an animal is getting abused I'll walk out. I just can't take it. 

You can find Francesca Maria at francescamaria.com and on Twitter @Writer_of_Weird.

Author Interview Series-Vikki Stark

Vikki Stark

Vikki Stark has an active international psychotherapy practice in which she works with clients both in her lovely Montreal office with a fireplace and by phone or Skype worldwide. She is the founder and director of the Sedona Counseling Centre of Montreal, where there are thirty therapists offering a full range of wellness services to our community.

Ms. Stark is also an international guest expert on television and radio on issues related to mental health and emotional well being, notably appearing on NBC’s The Today Show and Oprah radio. She was featured in Time Magazine and Maclean’s (Canada), among many other media appearances. She writes a blog called Schlepping Through Heartbreak for Psychology Today magazine that has had over 4 million views.

Vikki has written three books and edited a fourth. Her first book is about sister relationships and the other three are about divorce and divorce recovery. As a result of one of her books, Runaway Husbands, Ms. Stark leads a worldwide community of women supporting each other through recovery from sudden unexpected divorces.

Marina Raydun: You work primarily as a psychotherapist. What inspired you to write your first book-My Sister, My Self?

Vikki Stark: Prior to writing My Sister, My Self, I had never thought of myself as a writer but one thing I have always been is curious. So the germ for me writing my first book came at dinner one night with my two adult daughters when my younger daughter, Lauren, said, "No matter where I go, I always feel like a little sister" and I thought "Me, too!". I'm also a younger sister and always feel like the kid in the room. So I got curious about that and started asking around and realized that all of my best friends are also younger sisters. And then I had to know more!

MR: How did publishing your first book change your writing process?

VS: It really didn't. Because I work full time as a psychotherapist and have to squeeze in time to write, I don't really have a formal writing process. It's always been just grabbing a few hours whenever I can.

MR: Runaway Husbands is based on a worldwide study. Given that your clientele is international, do you find any cultural differences affecting the Wife Abandonment Syndrome?

VS: That is a really interesting aspect of our community. There is very little difference between women in different cultures. The remarkable things rather, is how much women's experience is the same from one side of the world to the other! 

MR: What is your favorite genre to read?

VS: I enjoy memoirs or books that feel like memoirs.

MR: What is the first book that made you cry?

VS: I don't really remember but I was one of those kids who was always reading. I remember walking down the street reading. And I loved the big, heavy classics - Dickens, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky - at one point in my life.

MR: What are you currently reading?

VS: I've just abandoned the book, The Sleeping Car Porter. I just couldn't get into it.  Prior to that, I read The Personal Librarian, which I really enjoyed - so much so that I visited the Morgan Library last time I was in New York.

MR: If you could have drinks with any person, living or dead, who would it be?

VS: Hillary Clinton - I think we would have a lot in common. Plus she's led such a fascinating life - I'd love to hear about it from her own perspective. 

MR: What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?

VS: I'm probably planning and organizing. There's so much going on in my life, I use any spare moment to make patterns. 

MR: Some readers say that you changed their lives with Runaway Husbands. Is there a book that changed your life?

VS: I'm privileged to have been able to help people in a meaningful, profound way. That is really an honor for me. I would say that one book that changed my life is Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. We are all looking for ways to manage suffering in life and his book provides richness in that regard.

Find Vikki Stark’s books here:
VIkki Stark

Author Interview Series-Stephanie Ellis

Stephanie Ellis

Stephanie Ellis writes dark speculative prose and poetry and has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies, the most recent being Scott J. Moses’ What One Wouldn’t Do, Demain Publishing’s A Silent Dystopia and Brigids Gate Press’ Were Tales. Her longer work includes the novel, The Five Turns of the Wheel and the novellas, Bottled and Paused. Her short stories can be found in the collections, The Reckoning, and As the Wheel Turns. Her poetry has been published in the HWA Poetry Showcase Volumes VI, VII and VII, Black Spot Books Under Her Skin and online at Visual Verse. She has also co-written a collection of found poetry, Foundlings, with Cindy O’Quinn based on the work Alessandro Manzetti and Linda D. Addison. A gathering of her dark twists on traditional nursery rhymes can be found in the collection, One, Two, I See You. She is co-editor of Trembling With Fear, HorrorTree.com's online magazine and also co- edited the Daughters of Darkness anthologies. She is an active member of the HWA.

Marina Raydun: You write very much on the dark side of the speculative fiction spectrum. What draws you to this genre?

Stephanie Ellis: I’ve read widely since very young childhood and always enjoyed work which had a dark ‘edge’ to them – those books which might treat with the darker side of human nature (the characters of Dickens are a classic example of this) and those other stories which ‘displace’ the reader and send a little shiver down the spine. I remember reading Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and it felt as if he was writing about the world I lived in. I grew up in a very rural area which involved long walks along deserted lanes to catch a bus to school, it meant I was often out walking at dusk which was full of shadows and that sense of shadow, of something other, has remained with me. It created a fascination, a sensation of otherworldliness which I wanted to explore and this in turn takes from folklore or my experience of human nature. It’s a tug that keeps pulling at me. So much of the darkness of humans is hidden by the night, by secrets, that it’s only natural these characters and their doings seep into my writing. I like to show them as sometimes likeable but also love to deliver a come-uppance when I can. It doesn’t have to be what everyone understands as horror, ie blood and gore, though there may be some of that; the dark explores how far people will go, it allows the reader to consider ‘what if’ and its consequences within a safe environment. And I, as a writer, have a huge amount of fun with this!

MR: Talk to me about Paused. Did the inspiration strike before, during, or after the pandemic we'd just lived through?

SE: Paused originated as a short story a couple of years before the pandemic. When critiqued, the concept was liked but generally it didn’t work as a short – it needed a bigger space and so I turned it into a novella. The concept was triggered by reading a couple of articles, one which discussed people with ‘Locked in’ syndrome and another which discussed technological advances to the extent a ‘cap’ had been created to read a person’s thoughts. Then I started to think what would it be like if sections of society started to suffer from being ‘locked in’, as if a paused button had been pressed on bodily response. I also wanted to challenge how people saw themselves. Do they always do the right thing, or do they take advantage? When you see how people are so willing to film something unfortunate and upload, rather than step in and help, I think we know the answer. Hypocrisy and selfishness can find its way into anyone at anytime – but we deny it.

MR: What is your favorite underappreciated novel within your genre?

SE: Oh my goodness, I love so many stories and they constantly change their position in my mental pecking order; most easily share the number one spot! This is such a hard question for a devoted reader. At present, I would say there’s a tie: The Grimoire of the Four Imposters by Coy Hall and Hummingbird by T.C. Parker. Both are excellent reads and have been well-received but they need a bigger audience and sometimes it’s hard to reach that.

MR: What do you owe real life people upon whom you base your characters?

SE: I don’t necessarily base characters on one person per se but I do build their personalities and behaviour on observations made over what is now becoming a long life. Being an older writer, I have experienced and seen a lot of the good and the bad in the world and in my immediate environment. This has shown what is possible, and I use that element to feed into my stories. Working with teens for a number of years until recently, fed into how the daughters of the main character (Dr Alex Griffiths) in Paused behave, their response to bullying and torment.

MR: What was the hardest scene to write?

SE: In Paused, it was the scenes where the person is struck down and how they see things happening to them and are unable to respond. There were two particular instances, one where the brother of Dr Griffiths is in charge of a demolition crane and the other, where Dr Griffiths daughter is left to the mercies of a predatory nurse.

MR: When writing this book, I had to work out how to make it terrifying and the only way to do that was to see the world from the viewpoint of a ‘locked in’ person and by keeping this to the family of Dr Griffiths it helped deliver a bigger impact.

SE: In The Five Turns of the Wheel, I included my real experience of an extremely traumatic miscarriage. Everything that character in the book experienced, the words spoken to her, the treatment in the hospital, everything is as it happened to me; and there were still some awful bits I left out because they couldn’t be worked into the storyline. This was a catharsis in a way as I didn’t realise until I wrote it how angry I still was about that treatment. At the time, I buried a lot of those feelings as I had a young family, but as the years went by I reflected more on it and needed to work through it in some way.

MR: Can you tell me a little bit about your creative process, specifically when it comes to writing poetry?

SE: For prose, it all starts with an image in my head, of a person in a place experiencing some sort of event. Then I have to know what’s going on and I simply sit ‘behind their eyes’. They might walk down a lane, talk to someone, anything but from that point, the story has begun. I have no outline, no idea of the ending – this comes suddenly usually 2/3 of the way through – I just literally make it up as I go along. This character or event does however set the subgenre – whether it be folk horror, gothic, or post-apocalyptic, etc. Quite often I will also have music playing. The right kind of music can create the mood of the bit I’m writing, help me get into the right mindset. I listen to a lot of Scandinavian metal or doom/death metal so the lyrics don’t disturb, as is the case with some German bands and the neo-pagan Heilung and Wardruna (the latter are great for folk horror as their music is often ritualised or treats of ancient sagas).

Poetry is even more organic. A lot of my poems have been written in response to an image, usually at the online literary zine Visual Verse and the image will trigger the idea of certain words or metaphors and I start to play with them. I love words and poetry allows me to experiment. Found poetry in particular is a wonderful form. I like puzzles and to tease a new original poem out of the words of another is a real challenge. Foundlings, written with Cindy O’Quinn, is based on the found poetry of dark poets Linda D. Addison and Alessandro Manzetti, who very graciously wrote the foreword. Cindy worked on Linda’s poems and I worked on Alessandro’s, then we both worked on the poems which Linda and Alessandro had written together, one of us writing a line or two, sending it off for the other to respond. It was, as Cindy has said, an utterly magical project. The response to this collection has been amazing with some of the best dark poets providing blurbs which have just blown us away. I’ve also written a novella in poetry, Lilith Rising, this time with Shane Douglas Keene. I took on the character of Lilith and he was Adam, so we could write our own bits and then react to what the other ‘character’ had done. Again this was just so easy to write. Only out recently, the response is again fantastic!

I tend to write in free verse but employ devices such as alliteration and slant rhyme to help give my work rhythm. I’m not generally one for form because of its restrictions. That being said, I have written a found sonnet, “Usurping Monster”, which will be included in Crystal Lake Publishing’s Shakespeare Unleashed. A new project, again working with Shane, also involves the inclusion of sonnets amongst the free form.

Nor is it always the visual which triggers my poetry. I am a big metal fan and purely for fun(!), I decided to take 200 of my favourite tracks and create 100 found poems from them. This was not that easy! A long song which might seem ‘mineable’ often turned out to have lots of very simple words and lots of repetition. I made sure to be extremely careful with this book, Metallurgy, which is self-published, as I didn’t want to get sued by anybody for plagiarism so I would continually check my new poem against the two source songs to make doubly sure it was unique. There is also a Spotify soundtrack, called Metallurgy, to accompany it. This was a labour of love but there were many moments when I wondered why on earth I had started it!

I’ve also been very privileged to be included in the HWA Poetry Showcase Volumes VI, VII, VIII and IX!

MR: What’s the best and worst book review you’ve ever received?

SE: I have had some wonderful reviews for all my books (Paused, Bottled, The Five Turns of the Wheel and Reborn) which have touched me deeply. One which remained with me was when Jonathan Maberry tweeted in response to Steve Vassallo of Brigids Gate Press (although the company did not exist at that time), that The Five Turns of the Wheel was ‘indeed a superb book’. Most writers seek validation and long for someone higher up the ladder to notice them and that was my ‘moment’, if you like. But I will throw in that writers such as Kev Harrison, TC Parker, Coy Hall and Laurel Hightower have continually written in support of my work. And having mentioned Steve, he and his wife Heather, when they started Brigids Gate Press, gave my books a home and have continued to support me in ways I find truly humbling. If you want to find a genuine small press, look no further than Brigids Gate. They are wonderful people discovering fantastic writers all the time.

As to the worse, I have had a few where people just don’t like the book and that’s fair enough as reading is subjective. The worst one was on Netgalley where someone had picked up The Five Turns of the Wheel because they had heard of me via Horror Tree (where I work regularly on a few things) and ‘wanted to see if I could write’. Let’s just say what they wrote was not a reflection of the book and more an attack on me as a writer. I did not respond, there is no point, and whilst it hurt, I was able to look at all the other reviews I’ve had for my books and remind myself that there are readers who enjoy my work. I have also been writing long enough now to recognise when something I have written is dire, in which case it dies a death on my computer, or is good enough to send out. That sense of where you are with your work does take time to emerge and does not completely take the sting out of rejection or bad reviews but it helps.

MR: What is your favorite genre to read?

SE: Another awful question for a reader. Naturally, I read a lot of dark fiction, and am picking up folk horror as much as I can plus a lot of what has been released in the indie world in recent years. I really enjoy crime of the Scandi noir variety and historical fiction, also modern literature with a dark edge, whether of human nature or events. I’m currently writing a dark historical mystery, Women of the Witch Eye, set in 1649 and whilst there is a murder mystery to be solved, it also brings in superstition and witchcraft beliefs of that time. I will say that I love ‘doorstopper’ books, huge books which are completely immersive (Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers, Stephen King’s The Stand, Alan Moore’s Jerusalem, Todd Keisling’s Devil’s Creek, CJ Sansom’s Shardlake series) and I wanted to write my own. Women of the Witch Eye is going to be that book! They say write what you want to read. I don’t think anyone need worry when they say they read outside of the genre they write in, to read widely is the number one advice for any writer plus if you stick to one genre, your view of it can become jaded and as a consequence, so can your writing. Stepping outside keeps everything fresh. The one genre I do not read, I’m afraid are romances, it’s just not me.

I also read poetry and am growing my collection in that respect as well. I have works from Linda D. Addison, Alessandro Manzetti, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Ilya Kaminsky and Matthew Francis amongst so many others joining that shelf at home. I think poetry will get its own bookcase in the not too distant future. And before I forget, the Prose and Poetic Eddas, the Norse and Icelandic Sagas, the Anglo-Saxon and Viking poetry, is a massive favourite. The lyricism and musicality of that work has captured my heart. For a person who loves words, the texture of their writing makes it almost edible.

MR: What are you currently reading?

SE: Like so many readers I have a TBR of both the physical and digital kind but I am also ringing the changes by using my library more. This didn’t stop my going into Waterstones recently though and buying a book because my eldest daughter had picked it up and said ‘Mum, you’ll like this.’ It was Hyde by Craig Russell, a gothic crime story featuring ancient Celtic rituals, yep, that’s me! I’ll be reading it after I finish the two below.

I’m currently reading The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag, an historical thriller set in 1793 Stockholm which would fit on any dark fiction shelf! I’m also reading The English Civil War: A People’s History by Diane Purkiss as part of my research for my current WIP.

MR: What book do you wish you had written?

SE: So so many. I suppose ultimately it would be my favourite ever book, Something Wicked this way Comes by Ray Bradbury. It’s dark, poetical and utterly awe-inspiring in use of language. I will never ever attain those heights but we can always secretly wish! A close second would be any of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. His lightness of touch, his humour and satire are just spot on.

You can learn more about Stephanie at https://stephanieellis.org and on Twitter at @el_stevie.