By your own admission, you say that you came late to the writing game. What prompted you to start and want to get published? I was having a rough go of it back in 2006 when, on a whim, I got into the online game City of Heroes. When I joined, this group called “Futura Force” that had these players, “Kill Favored”, and “Electroidium” that got me interested in posting short little stories on the forums. Then both of those players started talking about “National Novel Writing Month”, and how they were going to participate because they liked writing. I’d...
Show an Author Some Love Today!
Take a moment and go to Amazon or Goodreads and leave a review for a book — any book — that you’ve read. It doesn’t have to be long or especially witty. Just pick one thing you liked (or didn’t) about the book and mention that. It’s as easy as that to show an author that you care!
New Book Release: “The Names of Heaven” by Flavia Idà
We are thrilled to announce the immediate availability of The Names of Heaven by Flavia Idà. One man. An extraordinary choice. In 1511 a Spanish ship en route from the island of Hispaniola sank off the coast of Yucatan near the town of Tulum. The survivors were captured by the Maya; these were the first white men ever to set foot on the mainland of the American continent, and the first white men the Maya had ever seen. Among the castaways was Gonzalo Guerrero, a sailor from Palos. After he was captured, he lived among the Maya as a slave...
Interview: Lisa Jacob, author of Homecoming (A War Mage Story)
What inspired you to get into writing? I was always a voracious reader. I had been surrounded by books since childhood, and my mother was always a big reader. In junior high, I started reading “adult” authors like Stephen King and Sidney Sheldon, books my mom read. I finished The Shining and I thought to myself, I can write like this. So I started writing fan fiction for a few TV shows—this was way before fan fiction was a “thing.” My first original novel was written during the summer from 8th to 9th grade, and really improved my typing skills....
Interview: Kimberley Wall, Promotions Manager
As a promotions manager, how would you describe your job? Essentially, my job is to familiarize myself with the work, collaborate with the Editor and Business Manager on appropriate genre classifications, brainstorm ideas for whom to contact, where to go, what to do to make the book visible on a larger scale, and then pursue opportunities from the office and encourage authors to pursue others on their end. Tell me about the role of Marketing & Promotions, specifically in the world of the small press. If you didn’t want people to read your book, you wouldn’t bother to publish it,...
New Book Release: “Il ferro e il telaio” by Flavia Idà
We are thrilled to announce the immediate availability of Il ferro e il telaio (The Iron and The Loom) by Flavia Idà. How many times, she wondered, had she woven together cloth that his sword had then torn apart along with the flesh underneath? The year is 1136, the place Tropèa, a walled sea town in Southern Italy during the Norman domination. Kallyna d’Àrgira, a master of the arts of the loom who can turn the world into silk thread, is pledged in marriage by her father to Raimo Trani, a man she hates. After a sudden tragedy leaves her...
Interview: The Unruly Woman interviews Steven Radecki, author of Building Baby Brother
When the guy who makes your book dreams come true publishes his first book, you read it. So I did. I read a science fiction book, my first ever science fiction book! And I shocked myself by loving it. I asked Steven Radecki to let me interview him so I could drag other people into my excitement about Building Baby Brother. He said, "YES!". So I did my first Unruly Books interview and it is here for your listening pleasure (http://goo.gl/92HTqM). [powerpress]
Interview: Steven Radecki, Father of Building Baby Brother
Where did you get the idea for Building Baby Brother? To be honest, I don’t remember where the actual idea for the plot came from. The story itself started as part of an exercise that, well, kind of got out hand. My son’s charter had planned to sponsor an event to help foster reading and writing skills by asking students and willing family members to write a short story and then read it out loud at this event. Always willing to write, particularly for a good cause such as that one, I started pondering possible story ideas. I knew I...
New Book Release: “Building Baby Brother” by Steven Radecki
We are thrilled to announce the immediate availability of Building Baby Brother by Steven Radecki. Children will always grow up, whether we’re ready for them to or not. One truth about parenthood that I’ve learned is that there will come a time when your children will ask you difficult, and perhaps even uncomfortable, questions for which they expect you to have the answers. It’s also true that we often find it difficult to deny our children the things that they most desire — like freedom.
Measuring Success: With the Metric System
We asked our authors to share how they measure success when it comes to their writing and their books. We hope you enjoy them. How do I measure success? With the metric system. Seriously, success is difficult to describe, which in part is why we're writing about it here. My own personal measure of success is not by sales or publishing, though, those are great perks of the job. My measure of success is finishing. Yes, I want people to read my stories, enjoy them and even re-read them. But, to me, that's validation, not actual success. Success is starting...