Interview with Indie writer MELISSA A SMITH

She is a wife and mother of two teenaged boys and lives in the midwest, where almost everyone you meet is a friend or relative.  She has a tuxedo cat named Sam who thinks he's a big jungle cat and that the family is the juicy prey. 

Melissa is at heart an artist.  She’s always been certain of where she wanted her creativity to flow, dropping out of journalism school because she didn’t want to be told what to write.  

She has encouraged the love of art in her own children, her neighborhood kids, her nieces, and nephews and just about anyone that comes in contact with her.  Her love for art is boundless and lucky for readers she’s taken up writing.   

For some time she has wanted to write down her ideas.   Finally giving them attention, she finished and placed Cloud Nine up for sale at Barnes and Noble as well as at Amazon.  She is currently working on the second book that follows that story along with a separate Sci - fi novel. 

At the same time, she finished and published The Heir Apparent, which is also available from both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.         

Interview with Indie Writer MARY PAT HYLAND

Mary Pat Hyland grew up in New York in a very talented family.  Its no wonder we love her books so much.  She fulfilled a dream when she changed careers from journalism to novelist.  Her many awards speak for her talent as a writer and we know her latest effort is well on its way to being her biggest seller ever.  Mary Pat took some time to answer some questions for me and I'm happy to share them with you.  

What is your inspiration when writing…where do you get your ideas?

I think of my stories as tapestries. Woven into the plot and dialogue are snippets of my life, overheard conversations and moments witnessed from afar. Whenever I meet new people, I always interview them on the sly, mining their life stories for nuggets of ideas that can be hammered into my own stories. I keep these ideas in notebooks that travel with me always.

The Striped Sock Mystery - sneak peak

Here's a sneak peak from my next kids' book, The Striped Sock Mystery:

“Wow,” was all Billy could say when he came within sight of the bonfire.  The fire was already about two stories tall and filled the whole burning circle.  There were probably 15 people there already from the neighborhood along with Allison’s family.  Someone had a guitar and was entertaining people with silly songs about the sea.  Finally, an older man sat down and asked “do you all want to hear a story?” and the kids all screamed, “YES” at once. 

Allison’s G-pa Marq was the best storyteller in the whole area.  He had so many stories about his life at sea and ghost stories about far off places that he never repeated a story, not once, according to Allison.  She said she could sit for hours and listen to his east coast accent and his stories always brought shivers down her spin or sent her over the top with laughter. 

Chasing History: The Sword's Journey

Released 5/10/11 The Sword's Journey is the first of at least a 3 series set called Chasing History. 

Synopsis

Josh, Digger and Meri were rudely ported out of their time and far into the future by the Wizard.  King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur, is missing from its timeline.  Without the sword in its proper place in history, everything from that point forward could change.  Josh and his new found friends must find a way to return the sword to Arthur that won’t upset the timeline.  However, the Bard’s have other plans.  They want to rule time.  They would do anything to stop the return of the sword.  Is it murder to eliminate a timeline so that person was never born? 

Follow Josh and his friends back in time to Camelot.  Meet the Lady in the Lake, the King’s nephew and Merlin.  Rejoice as things go right and cry when a dear friend is erased from time.  Did they do something wrong?  Can it be fixed or was the Sword’s Journey the catalyst to the world’s demise?

Book Two:  (Working Title) Necklace
Necklace takes place many years before The Sword's Journey.  You will meet Merlin for the first time and find out some answers regarding the trio's interaction with Merlin and things mentioned in The Sword's Journey.  This is Meri's book.  You will learn more about her past and why some things are happening in the Wizard's time.  Meri learns about herself and whether or not she is strong enough to do what has to be done to preserve and set right the timelines the Wizard has identified. 

Currently this book is storyline phase.  Look for release in January 2012.

Book Three:  (Working Title)  Merlin's Staff
This is Digger's book.  All the loose ends from the first two books will come together here.  It takes place far past The Sword's Journey time and involves a totally different time and a totally different reason.  After their earlier adventures, will the trio be strong enough to take on this impossible task? 

Release October 2012.

The Sword's Journey

Having decided on a name, now I need a cover.  This is the latest.  Thoughts?  The book is with an editor, well two actually, and I hope to have the darn thing done and out of my hair and into the public eye by end of this week.

I've started outlining book two and it is looking to have much more action and magic than book one.  I'm excited about it.  Working title is "Necklace of Desire."  That may change.  Sounding more and more like a romance which it isn't going to be although I probably will introduce a bit more romance in this book than the first one.  Easy to say since the first one had no romance in it!

Story Title

Finally got the first book written.  Problem is now I need a title.  Since I decided to do a 3 book series I want the series to be called Chasing History.  Since that's been my working title all along, now that I've got the first book done I have to come up with a name for it.  Ideas are:  Sword of Arthur; The King's Sword; The Sword; Sword; The Lady's Hand; Art's Sword; Returning the Sword....  Don't really strike me as the right title. 

I'm editing now and will turn it over to my editor to review.  Maybe she will have some ideas for a title.  Bless you, Ams for doing the editing.  Love you much! 

To Prologue or not to Prologue

     I am writing a book intending to self-publish it.  Everything I've read and been told tells me that I need to allow at least a 15% preview so that people can be interested enough to purchase the book.  Really?  Seriously?  A preview for a 99 cent book?  Anyway, that ridiculousness aside, the book I'm writing starts out with character profiles for the three main characters ... not much in the way of story line until the 4th chapter.
    I've been struggling with whether or not I should rewrite the first chapter to have more "grab" power or write a prologue to include before the first chapter and hope that gives enough "grabbiness" to get readers interested. 
  I propose that question to you, my faithful readers:  To prologue or not to prologue?