The Gathering

Ah, yes, the blog title is a bit of a tribute to Highlander (the first movie, of course). Watched it (for the umpteenth time) the other day, and despite the wretched acting it's still one of my favorite movies of all times. So, there. I'm calling this post The Gathering. But it has nothing to do with Highlander, or immortals in general.

What is it then? A gathering of links for places you will find me this week.

1) A newspaper interview that came out in a paper called "Focus" here in my hometown. A writer and very sweet lady named Cheryl Turner contacted me a couple of months ago and asked to interview me for a feature in Focus. We met for breakfast and had a great time talking for two hours. The end result of that conversation is HERE. This shows up as virtual magazine, which means you must click to "turn" the pages. My feature is on page 7. I was most surprised to have merited a full page!

2) A review of Finding Angel by Heather Titus on Magical Ink. I woke up to find this posted and have not been able to stop smiling since. (Well, except when the kids acted up today. Full moon coming....) My favorite part of the review is this statement:

I can't talk enough about this book. It's another Splashdown Books release, and probably my favorite to date that they've put out (as well as gaining a spot on my all-time favorite fantasy books list).

Go check out the rest of the review. Feel free to leave a comment and follow her blog, too! And make sure you it out next week when she post an interview of me.

3) An interview on "A Pen for Your Thoughts." Novelist Shirley Kiger Connolly was gracious enough to invite me to her blog and ask me about my writing.

4) And if you missed it last week (since I only posted on my Finding Angel blog), my "Journey to Publication" was posted at Spire Reviews.

Unlike in Highlander, there doesn't have to be only one....

(Sorry. Feel free to groan and roll your eyes at that.)

Mind if I Use a Quick Quotes Quill?

I was contacted yesterday by a local reporter wanting to do an article about me for a small paper. This will make my fifth newspaper interview since I started writing. I've had several writer friends gape at me when I tell them such. Well, I assume they are gaping--it's all online, but their words imply a look of amazement.

I've been told over and over by other writers that they have tried desperately to get featured in their local papers but have been summarily ignored. They ask me, "How do you do it?"

My answer: "Uh..."

You see, I've done nothing. Honestly. (I swear, I did NOT put my name in the Goblet of Fire...)

The first interview came about by me being invited to speak at a writers group. No, let me clarify. I'm a member of that group, and the group president noticed I've gotten a lot of short pieces published and asked if I'd share my secrets. A local reporter happens to also be a member of that group, and she likes to write up when the group has "guest speakers." She checked me out online, saw that I write horror, and talked her editor into letting the article grow a bit to hit on that, um, eccentricity.

The second interview was because an anthology I'm in--The Ultimate Christian Living--landed on the desk of a certain reporter's editor. It had me listed as being from Valrico, FL, so the guy emailed me and asked for an interview. Local author and all. I assume the publisher sent the copy--I sure didn't. I wouldn't have even known who to send it to.

The next two were because I had a story in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas Magic. One article was written by the first reporter who interviewed me. The other was an entirely different paper. I can only assume that those had more to do with Chicken Soup sending them press releases, and the fact that Chicken Soup is a household name.

Which brings me to this upcoming interview. I have a friend in one of my writers groups who writes for this particular local paper and she told a fellow reporter about me. I did nothing other than become friends with someone whom I genuinely like. I didn't even know when I became friends with her that she wrote for that paper! She's just very excited for me about my book coming out.

What's my point? Well, Kristen Stieffel actually sums it up perfectly in this blog post on NAF. Basically, I never set out to market myself by joining writers groups. I simply wanted fellowship and places to learn, and sought out every group I could find. It has led to real friendships, and those friendships have led to links with people who ended up wanting to write about me.

Oh, and I'm quite sure the reporter I'm meeting will be nothing like Rite Skeeter, but come on, when else will I have a chance to use a picture of her here? :D

BTW, click HERE for links to the aforementioned newspaper interviews, and the blog interviews I've done as well.

Future Stories and Past Interviews

OK, taking another pause today from the art series to play catch-up. Although, there's some seriously cool art in this post, too.

I've got stories coming up in two anthologies. The first is a fantasy called "The Guitar" and will appear in While the Morning Stars Sing, to be published by ResAliens in February. Here's the gorgeous cover art:

Next is my horror story, "Delete," that will appear in Feckless, edited by Ellen C. Maze, who also has a number of stories in the book, along with several other writers. Ellen is author of what she terms "Curiously Spiritual Vampire Tales," so I'm sure you can see that the anthology is going to be, well, curious and spiritual for sure. I've been proofreading and the stories range from dark and macabre to quirky and down-right-dirty-fun. Click HERE for complete info on the February antho ;).

Even more art-related is The Book of Sylvari: An Anthology of Elves by Port Yonder Press, due out mid-2011. I am illustrating two stories in this anthology. More detail on that in a later post, but for now I wanted to give you a sneak peek at the cool cover. No, not my art, but cool nonetheless:

In the mean time, check out the interview of me that Ciara Knight graciously posted on her blog the other day. CLICK HERE.

And if you're just bored, or disturbingly curious about me, I've also been interviewed in the past several times:

Osprey Observer ("turn" to page 6)

Brandon News and Tribune (about my Chicken Soup for the Soul story)

Brandon News and Tribune ("Valrico mom pens inspiration and horror...")

20-20 Faith Sight (Sheryl Young, author of What Every Christian Should Know About the Jewish People puts me in the spotlight)

Katiedid (aspiring teen writer's blog--and my first ever interview)

Alright, that should keep ya busy this weekend.