Monday 29 December 2014

Meet The Author

K. A. Cross presents...

June Ahern


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About June

June Ahern was born in Glasgow, Scotland and along with her family immigrated to San Francisco California. She has published three books and written two screenplays, both of which are also novels. Her consumer’s guide, The Timeless Counselor: The Best Guide to a Successful Psychic Reading was the number one seller by an unknown author at the 1991 Whole Life Expo in New York where she was a featured speaker. Although, mostly retired from her forty year practice as a psychic/medium and Life Coach, June continues to share her talent and experiences by co-hosting a radio show once a month and ghost hunts with The Haunted Bay and Beyond paranormal investigations on Youtube. Her latest book on spirit communication is due in January, ’15.  June enjoys life on the Californian coast with her husband, playing with her grandchildren and caring for her horse.

Want to know more?

1. When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?

I’m not sure if I realized I wanted to be a writer at any one particular time. Like so many things in life, it just developed through chance encounters and creative interest. My artistic pleasure had always been drawing. All through school art class was my best-graded subject. My interest in fictional writing began when I took a class in stage and screenplay the early 1980’s. My college professor really found what I wrote of interest and encouraged me to continue to write. Producing a novel hadn’t crossed my mind as it seemed too time consuming and detailed.  As far as writing recognition, it began in eighth grade when I won an award with my "Becoming an American" essay. After that it wasn't until early 1990 my article on 1-800 Psychic Hot Lines was published in Bay Area newspaper for psychic interests. It wasn’t until 1990 when I self-published a consumer's guide about psychic readings on the advice of a friend did I realize how much I enjoyed sharing information through writing a book. I've written articles on various subjects published on-line sites and my blog. The screenplay I began in the late 1990’s would become my first novel, “The Skye in June.”And the beat goes on...


2. In what kind of environment do you work best in?


Music stimulates my creativity and puts me in the writing flow. I listen to all kinds from classical to 1960’s rock and my favorite, Motown.  At times, I’ve written paragraphs while cooking dinner, sitting in my favorite San Francisco tea room and while watching TV at night with the hubby. Seems as though some noise stimulates my creative mind.


3. What's your favourite thing about being a writer?


As far as my how-to books (one to be published in ‘15) I enjoy sharing what I have learned and experienced as a professional psychic/medium. I like to teach and explain the often misunderstood as well as share stories about people with hopes, fears and courage to go beyond challenges and pains. I confess ever since I was little, I love to make up stories. Something I learned about my mother who is a great storyteller, poet and lover of books. My characters become real to me; I talk them, know how and why they think and act. From that I create their body language to tell their story, how they smile or snarl, talk and walk. 


4. How did you come up with the idea for your latest book?


My latest is due, fingers crossed, in January, 2015. A client has been asking for few years that I write about communicating with the dead, one of my “other job” outside being an author. Since there are so many books on that subject already, I wasn't too interested. So, I took a survey of clients, friends and on Facebook as to the interest of this subject.  It was 100% supported with a long list of questions about it (to be included in the book.) My latest published novel, City of Redemption came to be through meeting a Scottish actor who requested I write a screenplay with her as the lead. She did a read in Los Angeles of my first novel, The Skye in June, and loved the Scottish character. By the time I completed she was in the Hollywood wind, so I decided to write it as a novel since it was more than halfway there.


5. Do you ever base your characters on people you know?


Yes, I have taken characteristics as well as life experiences from people I know or have heard about. Hopefully, I changed the physical looks and of course, the name, so no one could pinpoint – “hey! that’s me”  or "that's so in so!" I must say though whilst I deny, deny, deny, people have busted me.


6. Do you ever wish that some of your characters were real?


They are to me. The live in my head. I only present them and their stories to readers.

 

7. What do your family and friends think about your book/s?


Love them. Not only have they supported my works by setting up book events and selling them to their friends, but family and friends were very much involved in the production of my books. My first non-fiction The Timeless Counselor: The Best Guide to a Successful Psychic Reading (not the original title) my mother and I met almost daily. She guided to presenting a clear and reasonable approach to readers not familiar with the topic. One of my five sisters did the original artwork, which unfortunately is not in the ebook edition now. Many friends were involved from computer, printing help to and actual putting together the original printed copies. We set-up tables in my garage and put 2,500 copies together (all sold). Both my novels, first written as screenplays were read aloud with Scottish family for authenticity. The second novel, also read aloud, was videoed. What a fun time was had while corrections were made.


8. Do you plan out your books or do you just go with the flow?


I plan to some degree. I ask myself, why am I writing this? What is it I want to share or teach? That is the beginning and  leads my thoughts to create where it is going. The ending for my fictional work is quite hazy at first. It’s not always easy to bring to an end, to part ways, so to speak, with my characters. I could go on being a part of their lives. Alas, all good things must have an ending at some time as is similar to our own life experiences - conclusion and beginnings.

 

9. What’s next for you?


Now that is the million-dollar question and if someone could tell me, I’d probably give it a go. Writing is a great adventure, editing is a necessary often painful challenge, the day of publishing, scary and exciting – and then there’s marketing. Years and years of marketing. My clients in marketing tell me I’ve done a very good job – but it is job and I’m older now. So next? I truly don’t know. Right now, I'm enjoying simple pleasures and not driving myself all the time to produce.  Maybe in time I’ll write the much requested sequel someday to “The Skye in June.”

 

10. What advice would you give to someone just starting out?


You love to write? Then write. Share it with a writers’ group. If not in your area, there’s plenty who meet on line. To polish your writing skills, to express yourself more clearly, take classes, workshops, learn, learn! Authors love to share how they published and marketed their works. Good idea to hear them out. Some of it is good advice, most repetitive, but you just might use it at some time of another. Don’t gauge your worth on what others say unless you find worthy to learn and change for the better something in your art, your writing. Write because you love it, it is you, your artistic expression. 

 

11. What your guilty pleasure?


Why chocolate, of course! The other one is running away, even for an overnight to a motel to hide in the room, no computers, no calls to the outside world, nobody needing me. Just sleeping, watching TV, eating Chinese food. Alone.

 

12. Do you have a nickname?


Once upon a time, when I was a young wild thing, a guy tagged me “Outtahand Callaghan” – Callaghan being my maiden name. It stuck for years. One of my sisters gave me a large sticker with it in bold lettering. That was placed on my fire engine red toolbox, which was used during my blue color working days.  Eventually, life and motherhood calmed me (mostly) down. Perhaps I should have used it as my pen name for my novels. The Skye in June by Outtahand Callaghan – oh my I do like that! The other is Junie and only my family and very close friends may call me that.


13. How do you handle writers block?


Grrrr, to writers’ block.  “I really want to but I just can’t,” is one of my whines when experiencing writer’s block. Because I like to write, something, anything, you’ll find me on Facebook giving my comments or opinions more than usual. During the blocks my blogs are written on time in hopes getting a burst of creativity. Sometimes I go back to an unfinished piece or start a new one in hopes of getting into the flow of my imagination (if writing a novel). In the end, the piece I’m working on gets some attention and once I get going, comes the obsession – no stopping the train to even snack.

 

14. If you could go back in time what one piece of advice would you give yourself?


Not to let the opinion of others decide whether I’m talented, worthwhile, or “good enough” to follow what my heart knows is right for me. Even if it is right at the time, to follow through and learn as I go rather than listen to others to play it safe or fit in.


15. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?


Write a novel. Only kidding. I’ve lived a full enough life of crazy times starting during the days of Haight/Ashbury, the ‘60’s. I was a product of my environment is my answer to the question about rock n’ roll and drugs. One could say, I lived out loud my pain with a jolly attitude most the time. Fast motorcycles, wild horses, strong whiskey and handsome men! Probably not a wise thing to announce, but the craziest thing I did was try to end my life, not once, oh no! that wouldn’t do, but more than that. And then I was gifted my son. Sigh, love and responsibility helped ease the crazy out of me.

 

16. Do you believe in fate?


Fate has no choices. Destiny has, therefore I believe in destiny. How we fulfill it or not is up to us. We come to live on earth with some kind of blueprint to why we are here. I am here to inspire others to be true to self. I'm quite accepting of most, even if my acceptance of a person is to avoid them for how they are. Since childhood I attract many because I like people, enjoyed clowning in front of the camera and love animals. This is true today. I choose to continue with the same likes and in return have made a career and kept an interest in my childhood interests.

 

19. If you could be any animal in the world what would you be and why?


I do love animals, all kinds. Dogs are my favorite, but I will chose a horse. They are big, beautiful, love to run and roam free. If I wasn’t a free horse, I prefer a very large grazing pasture with a rider who truly understands the mostly, gentle nature of this beast. 

20. For many of us writing is not our full time job, what is yours?


I’m mostly retired, but for forty years my role has been a psychic reader and medium. For quite a few years my biggest challenge was in believing I could earn a living to take care of my household and let go of my other jobs (secretary, bartender and my favorite union labor job). Finally I did and there you go. It was my destiny. 


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The Skye In June


June MacDonald’s fate is sealed the day she is born when her mother, Cathy, defies her husband Jimmy by giving their new daughter a pagan name instead of a Catholic saint’s, as is their tradition. The decision forever sets the MacDonald family on a course for disaster, and no one can foresee that June will grow up to threaten their strong religious beliefs. After a family tragedy the MacDonald family emigrates from Scotland to San Francisco, California, in the hopes of a new beginning. There, young June begins to have visions. They haunt Cathy, revealing her secret past in the Scottish Highlands. June’s religiously rigid and abusive father will not tolerate the visions. That doesn’t stop June’s feisty nature or curiosity about her psychic abilities and interest in witchcraft. The family is on the brink of imploding when June and her three sisters come of age in the 1960’s Haight Ashbury scene. Their father’s declaration seems to be coming true: “Doomed to hell, every last one of you.” In order to save June, Cathy must take heed of June's physic message before it is too late.


Buy The Skye In June or June's other book here:


 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=june+ahern&x=0&y=0


Still want to know more?

You can find June, as well as previous interviews and videos, here:



Videos 

Walk with a Medium Part One http://youtu.be/TU4BvpvX5AQ 
Walk with a Medium Part Two http://youtu.be/m397g0a9F9A  

Interview w/Junehttp://youtu.be/8a0qtJrcYgI 
 

Friday 19 December 2014

Meet the author

K. A. Cross presents...
J. N. Colon 


About J. N. Colon

J.N. Colon is an author of young adult and new adult paranormal romance.  Vampires, shifters, Greek gods, and ghosts are all players in her collection of novels also starring heroines with strong personalities and a little bit of quirkiness.  Divine Darkness-Dark Souls is her first published novel and the first in the Divine Darkness series.  She’s a fan of anything supernatural and is just as obsessed with reading as she is writing. 


Want to know more?

1.  When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?


The first thing I really remember writing was in the fourth grade.  I wrote a scary short story ten handwritten pages front and back about a boy and his friend getting sucked into the television to ‘dimension x’ after turning the channel to 666.  I had a very vivid imagination.

 

2.  In what kind of environment do you work best in?


I like sitting on my couch with my laptop, a cup of coffee, and the television off.  If I simply have it muted, my eyes start to wander up.

 

3.  What's your favourite thing about being a writer?


When someone fall in love with the worlds and characters I create as much as I have.

 

6.  Do you ever wish that some of your characters were real?


Yes.  All of them even the villains.

 

8.  Do you plan out your books or do you just go with the flow?


I have a pretty routine process when I write a book now.  First I come up with a concept and make some notes.  I do a little research if necessary.  Next I write a small sentence about each scene.  Then using that outline as a guide I write the first draft.  After I’ve left it alone for at least a week I go back and read it, making notes and adding additional scenes that I think are necessary.  I continue reading, editing, and making notes until I thinks it’s ready.

 

10.  Who is your favourite author?


My favorite author is constantly changing.  Right now I would say it was either J.L. Weil or CL Stone.

 

11.  What’s your favourite genre?


My favorite genre is young adult paranormal romance.  It’s not only my favorite to read, but also to write.

 

12.  What’s next for you?


I’m working on a new series I started a long time ago about a street smart, jaded girl with a bad attitude who learns there are worse things on the streets than muggers and bums—and she was born to hunt them.

 

13.  What advice would you give to someone just starting out?


Write, write, and write everyday.  And when you get frustrated with writing, read.

 

14.  What’s your favourite movie?


My Cousin Vinny or Twilight.

 

19.  What’s your favourite season and why?


Autumn is my favorite season.  One, I love when the weather cools and the leaves turn those beautiful shades of gold, orange, and sienna.  I love the warm scents of pumpkin and cinnamon.  And of course because Halloween is my favorite day of the year.

 

20.  Do you have a nickname?


Bug because when I was a kid my eyes were really big.  Thankfully I grew into them—mostly.

 

21.  How do you handle writers block?


I read.

 

22.  What’s your favourite writing snack/ drink?


Coffee.  Coffee.  Coffee.  And cinnamon rolls.

 

23.  How do you cope with distractions?


I listen to Lindsey Sterling to help focus.

 

25.  If you weren’t a writer what would your dream job be?


An actress on Vampire Diaries.  One because I’d get to pretend to be a vampire (of course my character would be one) and two because I love Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder).

 

26.  Sweet or sour?


Both.

 

35.  What was the last thing that made you cry?


I was writing the last book in the Divine Darkness series and the main character Hartley delivers this inspiration impromptu speech.  I seriously got a little teary eyed.

 

38.  For many of us writing is not our full time job, what is yours?


I’m a billing specialist for an insurance company. 

 

 



Devine Darkness Series Book One: Dark Souls

Greek gods, evil souls, crimson fire, and sinful temptation… 

Hartley, queen of the school, has returned from a brush with death and no one is able to melt the ice from her insides… except the darkly gorgeous god of the hottest place in the universe. 

Hayden—Hades and hated god of the Underworld—didn't expect to fall for a mysterious beauty full of secrets when he enrolled at Northwood High School. He only came to claim the dark souls stolen from his domain that are now possessing Hartley’s friends. Somehow she’s able to see them and all the terrifyingly supernatural things about Hayden. 

Her friends begin to act strange—cruel with sinister black eyes—and suspicions arise in Hartley the closer she gets to Hayden. She’s determined to find out who or what he really is no matter the consequences... if she can resist his fiery touch long enough to concentrate. 

After having his heart broken in the past and her trying to cling to her life before death, including her perfect quarterback boyfriend, both Hayden and Hartley deny the sparking chemistry between them. But when he realizes Hartley’s secrets are darker than he thought and the evil souls are drawn to her like a beacon he vows to protect her—even if it means risking his heart. 

Just when they think they have it all figured out, fate deals them a blow that might set them both ablaze in Underworld fire forever. 

**Intended for audiences 16+** 
Dark Souls is the first installment in the Divine Darkness Series 

Buy it here: 
http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Darkness-Souls-J-N-Colon-ebook/dp/B00IO8YR2C

Still want to know more?
You can find J. N. Colon here:

www.jncolon29.blogspot.com 
www.facebook.com/JNColonAuthor



Saturday 13 December 2014

Meet the author

K. A. Cross presents...
Larada Horner-Miller

About Larada

Larada Horner-Miller is a poet and essayist who lives with her husband in Tijeras, New Mexico—a town nestled in the east mountains above Albuquerque. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Spanish and a master of education degree in integrating technology into the classroom. For thirteen years, she was a beautician until transitioning into what would become a twenty-seven year career in education.


Want to know more?

1.   When did you first realise you wanted to be an writer?


I was in my thirties.  I had become an middle English teacher and participated in the National Writing Project, a professional development workshop.  We were treated like writers and it was there that I realized I was a writer.


2.    In what kind of environment do you work best in?


I work best in a coffee shop atmosphere where there is some gentle background sound and a good cup of coffee.


3.    What's your favourite thing about being a writer?


My favorite thing about being a writer is getting to live life twice – once when it happens and then again when I write about it.


4.    How did you come up with the idea for your latest book?


My Mom died last year and I wrote poetry to deal with the grief.  I read my poetry to my therapist and she encouraged me to think about a book of poetry.


5.    Do you ever base your characters on people you know?


Yes and no


6.    Do you ever wish that some of your characters were real?


Yes


7.    What do your family and friends think about your book/s?


My family and friends are very proud of me.  My brother is my best promoter.


8.    Do you plan out your books or do you just go with the flow?


I go with the flow and then I change it in the revision process.


9.   Who is your favourite author?


My favorite author is Tony Hillerman.


10.    What’s your favourite genre?


My favorite genre is mysteries.


11.   What’s next for you?


My next book is a poetry book about my grief process when my Mom died last year.


12.    What advice would you give to someone just starting out?


I waited 20+ years to publish my book—don’t wait!


13.    What’s your favourite movie?


My favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz.


14.    If you were stranded on an island which three items could you not live with out?


I could not live without my iPad.


15.    If you could be born in another time when would you choose and why?


I would be born in the 1890’s in the west because of the wild free life style.


16.    If you wrote an autobiography about yourself what would you call it?


My recently self-published book is a memoir.  It is called, This Tumbleweed Landed.


17.    What your guilty pleasure?


Raspberries


18.    What’s your favourite season and why?


My favorite season is the summer because I am always cold in the other seasons.  I love the hit.


19.    Do you have a nickname?


Yes, my Dad called me “Shorty” and my friends at home called me “Rada.”


20.     How do you handle writers block?


I use Natalie Goldberg’s ideas of a 7 minute free write.


21.    What’s your favourite writing snack/ drink?


Coffee


22.    What three words best describe you?


Enthusiastic, busy, passionate


23.    What your fondest childhood memory?


My fondest childhood memories was spending time on our ranch in the corral, training my horse, Prince as a 4-H project.


24.   Would you prefer a quiet night in or a night on the town?


A night on the town


25.    What has been the best day of your life so far?


My best day in my life was when I married Lin Miller.


26.     If you could go back in time what one piece of advice would you give yourself?


Don’t marry the 3 husbands before Lin Miller.


27.    If you only had one more day to live how would you spend it?


I would dance!


28.    For many of us writing is not our full time job, what is yours?


I am a retired middle school English, Spanish and computer teacher.



The Tumbleweed Landed

Growing up as a member of a ranching family in Branson, a small town in southeastern Colorado, provided author Larada Horner-Miller a treasure-trove of stories, characters, and emotional moments that make up her touching memoir, "This Tumbleweed Landed." This collection of poems and prose transports readers back to rural America during the fifties and sixties, to one idyllic, tight-knit community in particular. Each of the book's eight sections weaves a nostalgic yarn that tells of playtimes with friends and neighbors, favorite hiding places, living without a telephone for the first eleven years of life, and the touching memories of growing up in a ranching community. Whether it is Saturday night dances or hot days working with 4-H at the county fair, the poems and pages roll along like a tumbleweed in search of a place to land. Readers will find themselves longing to go back to this very specific time and place, whether they actually experienced it in their own lives or not.

Read about this daddy's little girl and her adventures that mold and shape her formative years. Where will this tumbleweed land, and what kind of woman will she be when she finally arrives?

Buy it here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Tumbleweed-Landed-Larada-Horner-Miller-ebook/dp/B00LR8QS4Q

Still want to know more?
You can find Larada here:



Tuesday 25 November 2014

Meet The Author

K. A. Cross presents...

Angel M. B. Chadwick


About Angel

Angel Chadwick is a tour de force writing about the most painful, extremely dark and very, very difficult aspects of her life in her memoir "Corridors of My Mind" written in the unique literary style of lyrical poetry. Her words are visceral and telling of how she speaks from the deepest recesses of her soul. It's a coming of age nonfiction story starting first with her life as a wife, a mother and taking the reader backwards in time from her adulthood to her teenage years, revealing her hardships, relationships and the wisdom she's learned from it all. One of her poems in this book "Life or Some Facsimile of It" is Chadwick speaking to life itself and apologizing to it for ever doing it wrong by attempting or even entertaining thoughts of suicide.

She is a fresh, new, yet seasoned and unique multifaceted, multitalented author who has pulled herself out of obscurity many times especially with this book. "I write only what I've experienced myself, no lofty perches here only raw emotion, life experience, and soulful intelligence. To read my books is to know me, mind, body, soul, intellect and spirit my essence is on every page." Chadwick has been writing since she was thirteen years old spanning over twenty years and counting and has developed a unique, unpredictable and Godgiven style that is like no other author out there. 


Want to know more?


1. When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?

 

 When I was thirteen years old, and wrote my first writing assignment for English class.  I got an A+ on my first short story and endless praise from my teacher.     It was the first time I discovered I could actually write.  


2. What kind of environment do you work best in?


Somewhere quiet, uninterrupted with a cup of chamomile tea or when I’m asleep.

 

3. What's your favourite thing about being a writer?


Everything.

 

 4. How did you come up with the idea for your latest book?


I based it on my real life experiences.

 

 5. Do you ever base your characters on people you know?


Yes.

 

 6. Do you ever wish that some of your characters were real?

     

No.

 

7. What do your family and friends think about your book/s?


I’ve received high praise and support from my family so far.

 

8. Do you plan out your books or do you just go with the flow?

        

Both, it depends on the mood my creative mind is in at the time.

 

9. Who is your favourite author?


Edgar Allan Poe


10. What’s your favourite genre?

       

 Horror.

 

11. What’s next for you?

 

I’m currently finishing up my second book, a fiction horror novel.

 

12. What advice would you give to someone just starting out?

 

Dream big and work harder.

 

13. What’s your favourite movie?

 

Temple Grandin, I related to it (as a parent), because I have a seven year old son who is autistic/nonverbal. But, is becoming more and more high functioning every day.

 

14. If you were stranded on an island which three items could you not live without?

 

Pen, paper and food.

 

15. Sweet or sour?

Both with always a little salty added.

 

16. If you could go back in time what one piece of advice would you give yourself?


To make better choices, particularly in men. 


17. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

By far, becoming a self-published author and loving every minute of it.

 

18. Do you believe in fate?

 

Not anymore. I believe in consequences. 

 

19. If you could be any animal in the world what would you be and why?

 

An eagle so I can fly away and because I’ve spent my whole life as an endangered species. (further elaboration, if asked privately.)


20. If you could have any super power what would it be and why?

       

It would be to heal, because there isn’t enough of it, at least not in my experience.  And also because I wish I could heal myself.

 

21. If you only had one more day to live how would you spend it?

 

That’s easy. I would spend it with my son.



Corridors of my mind

A nonfiction work; a memoir about certain aspects of the author's life, family and community written by the author in the form of literary poetry.

Buy it here: