AUTHOR INTERVIEW - ANDREW LAVRIK

What is your name, where were you born and where do you live now?

Hello! My name is Andrew Lavrik (real name Andriy Lavryk). I’m from Kyiv , Ukraine . It’s somewhere between Romania , Poland , Slovakia , Hungary , Belarus and Russia .

Did you always want to be a writer?

 I can’t tell you how much. When I was a kid I loved thrillers, detective stories, horror and fantasy. However in the Town of Lubny , where I grew up, the library was quite limited. I’d begun making up stories myself, writing them in a school notebook and giving them to read to my classmates. When I got older, I burned the notebook to prevent anybody using the rubbish written in it against me!

Do you work another job as well as your writing work?

Unfortunately I haven’t got much time for writing books – you can’t earn a living with books in Ukraine . I’m an editor of the investigations department in one of Kyiv’s magazines. I always write my books at night.

Who is your publisher? or do you self publish?

Somehow it didn’t work out with a publisher. I have to publish my stories myself.

How long does it usually take you to write a book, from the original idea to finishing writing it?

One day I calculated that without occupational distractions I could create a couple of novels a year. But there is so little time for books. As a result, my three novellas have taken nine years.

What can we expect from you in the future?  ie More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre?

 There are already two more novellas from the series “Go And Kill” - «Two captains» and «The Outcome». They are continuing «John Doe», the first part of the series. They are only in Russian at the moment, but possibly, you’ll be able read them in English soon. I’m maturing two more plots for novellas. One is about a tender serial killer, the second – about a man, who woke up one day and found that everyone had disappeared. Both of them are in mystic thriller genre.

Do you have a favourite character from your books? and why are they your favourite?

I love all of my characters. Even the out-and-out villains. Why? Perhaps, because you can love anything you’ve created.

Where do you get your book plot ideas from?

I get it from life and my fevered imagination.

How do you come up with the Title and Cover Designs for your book/books? Who designed the Cover of your books?

 The titles come by themselves, somehow. And the cover... I give a book draft to an artist or designer and I’m open to any of their ideas.

What do you do to unwind and relax?

 Apart from sleeping, I like to take walks in forests. I try to penetrate a forest as deeply as possible to avoid meeting people.

Have you ever based characters on people you know or based events on things that have happened to you?

I do this all the time. For instance, the idea of «Go and kill» was given to me by the case of the maniac Anatoliy Onoprienko, who killed about a hundred people. But he is not in the book himself. The nature of the many secondary characters I’ve copied from my friends.

Are there any hidden messages or morals contained in your books? (Morals as in like Aesops Fables type of "The moral of this story is..")

A moral is in any good book. Often, there are even more than one moral and every reader can sight his/her own moral in between the lines. I hope the same is with my books.

Is there a certain Author that influenced you in writing?

Any author whose text has appeared in my hands has influenced me. Mostly I love – Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury (?), Roger Zhelyazny (?), Michael Bulgakov, Francis Schott Fitzgerald (?), Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, William Golding (?)... In general, it could be a long list.

Do you think ebooks will ever totally replace printed books?

I would say yes rather than no. It’s a pleasure to hold a printed book, however e-books are cheaper, they are more compact and more eco-friendly. We will abandon them as we refused clay tablets and the parchment some time ago.

Is there anything in your book/books you would change now if you could and what would it be?

You can make changes improving any text infinitely. Literally, just yesterday I’ve reviewed one of my novella, took something away, added something else. By the way, the charm of the electronic self-publishing is that you can you can improve your book at any time.

What piece of advice would you give to a new writer?

Remember about the reader, mate. They are don’t give a shit about your reflections and your opinion about yourself.

Your web site ?

http://lavrik.ho.ua/

The site is in Russian and Ukrainian, but any on-line translator, like http://translate.google.com , for instance, could help to understand.

Your facebook page?

http://www.facebook.com/pages/On-line-triller/161292203902426

Your Goodreads author page?

http://www.goodreads.com/andrewlavrik

Your Twitter details?

http://twitter.com/#!/Onlinetriller

And any other information you wish to supply?

Find me on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Lavrik/e/B005Z265QG/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - DEAN MURRAY

Hi, Jeanz.  I just wanted to quickly say thanks for having me-I appreciate you taking the time to do an interview with me.  Ok, on to the questions!

What is your name, where were you born and where do you live now?

Dean Murray, I was born in Idaho, and currently live in Logan Utah.

When did you first consider yourself as a "writer"?

That’s a bit of a tough question because it happened so gradually.  I think the first e-mail I got from someone who read my fan fiction novel and loved it was probably where I realized I’d just become a writer.  You kind of expect your friends and family to go easy on you and tell you that you book was really good despite it having taken them 12 months to get around to reading it, but when a perfect stranger goes out of their way to tell you they enjoyed something you wrote, it’s a huge compliment.

I think the other big step forward as far as me viewing myself as a ‘real’ writer was when strangers started paying actual money to read my stories.  That’s some heady stuff there J.

What is the name of your latest book, and if you had to summarise it in less than 20 words what would you say?

My most recent book to go live on the various retail sites was Torn.  “Shapeshifter boy is torn between protecting his pack and a growing fascination for the new girl in school.”

Who is your publisher? or do you self publish?

While I might consider a ‘traditional’ publishing deal at some point in the future, I’m currently self-publishing.  Given all of the metaphorical dust currently in the air as a result of this disruptive technology of e-books, it seems prudent to wait for things to settle down a bit.  Plus, I really love all of the control indie publishing provides.

How long does it usually take you to write a book, from the original idea to finishing writing it?

You’ve got a knack for asking leading questions J  The amount of time it takes to write a book can really vary for me, at the same time it’s a very known quantity all at once.  Over the last several books I’ve clocked myself and I write at a rate of between 500 and 1000 words per hour.  My average book has run somewhere in the range of 80,000 words, so I always know when I sit down to write a book that I’m looking at dedicating between 80 and 160 hours of my life to getting it to the rough draft stage.  That’s the predictable part.

The tricky part comes in just how many weeks or months pass between when I have the idea and when I actually finish the book.  I find when I’m doing a lot of writing, that ideas just kind of rain down from the heavens, but there is usually quite a backlog of other ideas already in the queue, so it’s a bit difficult to measure the time between when I get the idea and when I sit down to write it.

Excluding the simmering time, and the outlining bit, the rest of the process comes down to just how much free time I have during the time when I’m trying to write.  When I wrote Broken (the alternate perspective to Torn) I was working a fairly demanding job at the same time.  Broken took me roughly six months to write because I was sneaking in an hour at lunch and an hour or so during the evening.  Torn on the other hand was written when I was between jobs, so during that time I treated writing as my job.  I usually wrote between 4,000 and 6,000 words a day while I was working on Torn, and it took me something like a month, month and a half to finish it off.

Which of your books were easier/harder to write than the others?

I don’t know that I’m far enough into writing full novels to really have a great idea around what makes some easier than others, but I’m starting to get some glimmers.  Those books where I have lots of time to dedicate to writing seem to go smoother than the ones that I spread out over six or more months.  I think that’s a function of my subconscious being more fully engaged with just writing rather than splitting its focus between writing and other things.  Torn went by smoothly, so did The Greater Darkness and Frozen Prospects.  Thawed Fortunes was a little less so towards the end when I was working some really long hours at my day job.

The other thing I think that really helps me is the quality of the outline I get to before I start actually writing.  It doesn’t have to have every last bit mapped out, but if there is a part of the outline that I’m really struggling with, then generally I’m going to struggle with that same piece of the actual book.

What can we expect from you in the future?  ie More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre?

I can feel already that I’m going to range a bit farther afield maybe than you intended for this question J.  The short answer is more books of the same genre, and more of different genres.  There’s a long answer though which I think is worth going over.  As things currently stand I’ve written full novels that are epic fantasy, urban fantasy and paranormal romance, but I really think there’s more similarities to those genres than we sometimes realize.  I think nearly all romance books have an element of fantasy to them-if you don’t include a bit of fantasy, then they end up too similar to the drudgery of everyday life that we all experience at some point or another.  It could be that the love interest is independently wealthy, it could be that they are a vampire, but it’s still fantasy designed to add a bit of spice to the story.

Likewise, I think most of the best fantasy has romantic elements to it.  As human beings, we are incredibly impacted by our relationships, and most books that have a scope that covers weeks and months, need to include some degree of romance in them or they risk coming across as flat and unrealistic.

I fully plan on continuing with all of the series I’ve started so far, but I’d also like to explore some other settings.  That will likely mean that I cross over and blur some genre lines, but I think readers are ok following a writer on that kind of journey as long as the writer continues to touch them with the same kind of themes and characters.

Do you have plans for a new book? Is this book part of a series?

Torn is definitely part of a series.  Currently from the same series there are two other books nearly ready to go live, one (Broken) telling the same story from a different point of view, and another that picks up where Torn and Broken leave off.

Long term I’d like to tell a much larger story arc by developing the stories of other currently minor characters as I continue to tell the story of the major characters that readers have fallen in love with.

All by itself I think that is pretty exciting, but I also plan on writing a parallel series in the same world, with the same characters, but with an alternate timeline.  It’s going to give me an incredibly broad canvas with which to develop my characters, and I honestly get giddy at the thought.

Where can readers follow you?

Blog: deanwrites.blogspot.com

Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4749826.Dean_Murray

Twitter: @writer_dean

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dean-Murray/e/B004F8CC7W/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/DeanWrites

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/dean-murray

Thankyou for taking the time to take part in this Interview Dean. I will be reading Torn so watch out for my review!

PROMOTIONAL SPOTLIGHT - TOTAL BLUEPRINT FOR WORLD DOMINATION

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Target big dreams and build a plan to achieve them! You've got one life, one shot, and all the power to make it happen. Get ready to dream big and live big. It's all up to you. And it starts now. 

Total Blueprint for World Domination (17,000 words) is a powerful life-planning book for teens that will inspire. The book lets readers: 
*Explore hidden passions and find direction. 
*Create heart-pounding, toe-tingling goals. 
*Recruit an army for support. 
*Design a dream world and make it happen. 
*Achieve world domination step-by-step. 

Full of tips and tricks for tackling life's challenges, Total Blueprint for World Domination is a book that will motivate readers to take their life to the next level. 

Anything is possible. And anything is possible for you. Believe it. Total Blueprint for World Domination takes you from this very second to your greatest dreams. So, are you ready?

This book sounds like the ideal book to start the new year with, make those new Years Resolutions, read the book and become more confident in the process too!

Available Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk £2.09 on Kindle

PROMOTIONAL SPOTLIGHT - CHERRIES BY JOHN PODLAWSKI

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A book chronicling the experiences of eighteen year-old Army Infantry soldiers during their tour in the Vietnam War. During the draft years, scores of naive, frightened, and awed young soldiers arrived daily in Vietnam; they were immediately branded "Cherries" (slang for virgins) by their in-country peers. Thrust into an unpopular war, these new recruits had much to learn before being accepted and fully trusted by their brothers. These boys were forced to become men virtually overnight, learning the ropes quickly to make life or death decisions, while depending upon one another to survive. The first few months in country served as an intense learning experience where they saw, heard, and endured things never thought to be humanly possible - providing they lived that long.There are 2.5 million existing stories from soldiers having served in Vietnam. Cherries is unique in that it is told from a “Cherry’s” point of view. The story follows a group of teenage soldiers throughout their transitions from Cherries to war-hardened veterans. Their experiences are at times educational, horrific, comical, and tragic, in their never-ending search for the enemy through the dark, wet, bug-infested jungles and mountains of South Vietnam. Though Vietnam serves as the setting for Cherries, this story could take place during any war.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - JOHN PODLASKI

What is your name, where were you born and where do you live now?

My name is John Podlaski.  I was born in Munich, Germany and now reside with my wife of 39 years, Janice, in Sterling Heights, Michigan USA

Did it take long to get your first book published?

How about thirty years...it began when my mother gifted my wife and I with a shoe box containing every letter I had written home while serving in the Vietnam War.  We read through the many letters and a personal diary I carried - my wife, intrigued by it all, had a hundred questions.  She suggested that I make a short outline based upon the letters and diary and then try to flesh it out so her questions could be answered.  I started this project on a manual typewriter and carbon paper, intending to write something no longer than a term paper.  However, as more questions and requests for clarification  were made, the "term paper" grew.  Editing, during this time, required an entire chapter to be retyped in order to maintain proper structure.  In early 1980, Atari came out with a game console that offered a word processor, the ability to store data on floppy disks and a dot matrix printer.  Purchasing this, I spent the next three months duplicating all the key strokes of the paper into this new computer, then finding it much easier to edit and add to the story.

The manuscript was completed in 1986 and then shopped around to various publishers and entered into contests at various colleges; the story was a finalist at Washington State University's International Literary Awards.  I finally located a publisher who was willing to take a chance on my story providing it was rewritten to a third person perspective.  

Six months later, the rewrite was half complete and already exceeded the length of the original.  I began working a lot of overtime on my job and found that there wasn't any time available to continue my project - this continued for the next year.  At that point, I lost interest in the project all together - boxing everything up and moving them to the garage, where they sat for the next twenty years.

In 2009, my wife and I attended our 40th high school reunion - the school was small and we only had sixty students in the graduating class...at least two thirds of them had attended.  The last reunion attended was the 20th, and I had forgotten that I had donated two copies of my original manuscript for them to read and pass around.  So, I was quite surprised when they asked about the status of that manuscript from long ago.  When I told them them I stopped the project shortly after that last reunion, they were relentless in their efforts to get me to pick it back up.  This persistence continued for the next two or three weeks before I gave in.

The floppy disks could not be converted to Microsoft Word without spending quite a sum of money.  My daughter, Nicole, said that if I could print out everything saved, she would get it all into Word.  Six weeks later, she handed me a memory stick with both versions.

Nine months later, April 20, 2010, "Cherries" was born as an e-book on Smashwords.com and later as POD on Amazon.com and other platforms.

     

Do you work another job as well as your writing work?

Yes.  I was spending every spare moment to write the original story, dedicating weekends and sometimes parts of my vacation.  My wife was understanding and supportive, because this was something she wanted me to do.  It was her idea and she looked forward to reading and learning about my experiences during the war.  Once my company began scheduling daily and weekend overtime, I found my time limited and had to stop writing altogether.  It was like that for the next twenty years.

What is the name of your latest book, and if you had to summarise it in less than 20 words what would you say?

My book is called, "Cherries - A Vietnam War Novel".  Young soldiers are "different" or "changed" when returning home after their first war.  Cherries will show you why it happens.

Who is your publisher? or do you self publish?

I am an Indie author and self published.

What genre would you place your books into?

At first, I listed it as Historical Fiction and then moved it to General Fiction as some folks on the forums objected that the time line for the story was not "old enough".  I think this topic is debated on and off over time and qualifications for this genre are not defined anywhere.

   Do you have a favourite character from your books? and why are they your favourite?

My favorite character is my protagonist, John Kowalski.  He is the main character and the story is told through his eyes.  When I read the story, it's enjoyable to watch this character from a distance.

Where do you get your book plot ideas from?

I just wrote about what actually happened.  The letters and diary served nicely in preparing my outline and kept the story line consistent.

Do you have anybody read your books and give you reviews before you officially release them?

Not in this case.  However, as I had mentioned earlier, the work was highly praised by friends and family and gave me encouragement to finish the novel.  Had that not happened, Cherries would never have been completed. 

Do you gift books to readers to do reviews?

Yes.  I will gift an e-book version in exchange for a book review on Amazon.com

Do you read all the reviews of your book/books?

Yes.  In fact, I utilized Facebook a lot to get readers of my novel to post their thoughts.  However, it seems that many of my readers are intimidated about posting a book review on Amazon.com.  As a result, many people were more comfortable leaving messages on my blog website instead.

What was the toughest/best review you have ever had?

I was quite excited to start seeing all the five star reviews posted on Amazon.com and looked for more daily.  After a couple of months, I got a one star rating which criticized my writing style, editing and grammar.  It was like a punch in the gut which forced me into a depression, I kept dwelling upon this one awful review.  I found myself visiting forums and visiting with other groups within Goodreads and heeded their advice.  I had the book professionally edited and now think of it more as a polished diamond.  The revised edition has not received any more criticism about grammar, etc. and the reviews since have been quite favorable.  Thinking back, that awful review actually prompted me to react in a way that improved my book - for that I am now grateful. 

How do you come up with the Title and Cover Designs for your book/books?Who designed the Cover of your books? 

My original title was "The Ingenuous Soldier" which I thought was appropriate at the time, because my story is about about the innocent, scared, naive, young teenage soldiers who go to war.  One publisher, a Vietnam Veteran himself, suggested that I change the name to "Cherries", the moniker used to depict that same group of soldiers in Vietnam - The New Guy!.  The name stuck!

As for the cover, Smashwords.com offered a list of cover designers to authors to help with covers.  I contacted the owner of DigitalDonna.com and we collaborated on a book cover design.  I summarized the story for her and told her what I had in mind.  I sent her some digital photos to help generate ideas.  After three tries, we finally agreed on a design and made several enhancements to get it where it is today.  Donna is highly recommended and has exceeded the expectations of everyone I had referred to her.

How do you market/promote your books?

There are several things that I've done to market and promote Cherries.  First, I search the internet and participated in many book marketing training sessions and followed a check list.  I created a website and blog to promote Cherries, a Facebook fan page, created a book trailer, participated in book signings at veteran events this past summer, and even had a couple of local restaurants sell copies at the checkout.  I've created tri-fold brochures that are left everywhere, passed out business cards with a summary and ordering information.  Lastly, I've advertised on Facebook and several other book promotion websites.  The work is continuous and I'm finding that I have to dedicate at least a couple of hours daily on marketing to get the word out.  

 What do you think makes a book a really good/bestseller ?

The obvious is that it has to be a good story and well written.  However, unless readers are aware of this great book and know where to find it, sales will be uneventful.  Book promotion, advertising, speaking engagements, book reviews and word of mouth seem to be the keys in having a best seller.  In my case, Cherries is selling well, but I am still finding new readers that are just now finding out about it.  

What do you do to unwind and relax?

I spend a couple hours each night in bed reading while my wife watches television.  I like action / adventure and mystery novels the best, but have also read numerous Vietnam War novels to learn more about the conflict and what other soldiers had to endure to survive.

Have you ever based characters on people you know or based events on things that have happened to you?

As I explained earlier, Cherries is written about my actual tour of duty in Vietnam as told through the eyes of my protagonist.  Names have changed, but the characters are based upon real people that I spent my year with. 

Are there any hidden messages or morals contained in your books? (Morals as in like Aesops Fables type of "The moral of this story is..")

But of course.  Cherries starts with a quote from the late General William T. Sherman in his address of 1880:  "There's many a boy here today that looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell."  I would also like to add that even though the background for Cherries is the Vietnam War, those experiences within occur in every way.  Readers of Cherries will learn how war effects the young soldiers of yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

Where can readers follow you?

Your web site ?    http://cherrieswriter.wordpress.com 
Your facebook page?  http://www.facebook.com/cherriesnovel
Your Goodreads author page?    http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3772926-john-podlaski 
Your Twitter details?   https://twitter.com/#!/pdoggbiker

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003R4Z5U6

Smashwords:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/13437

Other:   http://www.authorsden.com/johnpodlaski