Brian B. Baker writes horror and military/political thrillers. His book Disunion by Force comes out on November 8th, election day in the US. He lives with his wife and kids in Utah. ​

Continuing our journey through Women in Horror Month, I’m pleased to share my review of Donn’s Shadow by Caryn Larrinaga. Donn’s Shadow is the sequel to Donn’s Hill and if you haven’t read it, then I highly recommend you fix that as soon as possible.

Here’s the synopsis:

Return to the most haunted small town in America...
Mackenzie Clair finally has this whole ghost-hunting psychic thing figured out. The Soul Searchers are a hit, she’s got pet-parenting down, and she even has a plan to banish the poltergeist running amok at a lakeside cabin. Best of all, Donn’s Hill feels like home. But not everyone loves the town as much as Mac.
A world-famous paranormal debunker thinks the psychics in Donn’s Hill are lying about their abilities. His determination to destroy the Soul Searchers threatens Mac’s livelihood, and when a killer strikes, the sheriff’s suspicions threaten her freedom.

Mac needs all the help she can get to find the real murderer and clear her name… even if that help comes from beyond the grave.   

This novel is a mystery novel so I’ll keep this review spoiler-free. One of Larrinaga’s biggest strengths is creating a cast of believable, three-dimensional, characters. At one point in the novel, we are introduced to a person who by all accounts is supposed to be an asshat; however, this character has been nothing but nice up to this point. That being said, the protagonist trusts her friends’ opinions, and therefore by proxy, because Larrinaga has created these believable characters, I too trust in them.

On top of this, there were several unexpected twists in turns in this book. I am pretty sure I said WTF out loud more than a few times. It’s refreshing to see a storyline go in new and different directions other than the expected.

Something else fun in this book is the exploration into the world of psychics, mediums, and diviners. It’s obvious that Larrinaga did her homework on the subject and I learned a thing or two from this story.

The last thing I’ll say (unless I get into spoilers) were the scenes that were full of creepy tension. Who knew the slightest creak of a floorboard could be unnerving in written form. My hat’s off to her for being able to paint a picture vivid enough that I could easily see it in my mind as I read along.

Larrinaga leaves the story open for another novel in the Soul Searchers Mysteries, and I for one can’t wait until it comes out.
​
While Donn’s Shadow stands strongly on its own, you’ll get so much more out of the tale if you read Donn’s Hill first. 

​Today we get to talk with Stephanie Wytovich and learn about her writing and her upcoming poetry collection, The Apocalyptic Mannequin. 

• Who or what inspired you to become an author and poet?

I’ve always loved storytelling, and I’ve been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember, but I became a poet out of necessity for my mental health because I needed a way to process my trauma and the act of writing was extremely therapeutic to me. When I got to high school, I started getting into horror and monsters, and that’s when that part of myself started to grow and howl and get its teeth. Aesthetically, I knew that I loved the genre because it was dark and honest and all about surviving to the end, and so I started writing longer pieces because I wanted to participate in a genre that made me feel so alive. By the time I got to college, I knew that was going to be my focus point, and honestly, I haven’t turned back since.
 

• Tell us about The Apocalyptic Mannequin and what inspired you to write it?

The apocalypse is something that I think—to some degree or another—is on everyone’s mind lately (climate change, policy changes, nuclear threats, etc.) and whether we’re watching it happen in real life, or seeing it spoon-fed to us in entertainment with fantastic movies/TV shows like The Silence, Annihilation, A Quiet Place, Chernobyl, etc., the notion of who/what we became when it’s all been taken away has kept me up thinking most nights.
 
For this collection, I wanted to explore the definition of self when one is pushed to extreme trauma and revelation. I tried to define bodies when the idea of “body” has been lost among the rubble, and through a series of possibilities—whether environmental, religious, monstrous, or human—I performed lobotomies to erase the trauma, and then shocked my characters back to life as they were reborn in a world unfamiliar to them. In a lot of ways, this collection was one of the scarier ones that I’ve written because I put a lot of personal fears, anxieties, and nightmares into it, and while I’ve written about death and grief as a subject matter before, this one felt darker to me in a realer sense because the threat of destruction in a moral or physical sense is something that I feel like I confront every day when I walk outside, when I read a newspaper, when I pick up my prescription at the pharmacy…
 
Lately, the horror just feels more present than it has in the past.
 

• Is your process for writing poetry different than your process for writing short fiction or novels?

 
Very much so! When I write fiction these days, I tend to heavily outline the entire project—with extra attention spent on character and setting description, whereas my poetry tends to be a little more freeform with some light meditation beforehand. For instance, when I have a subject for a poem I want to write, sometimes I storyboard the idea with visuals/art that helps foster that emotion, and other times, I write done words that I associate it. I’m not necessarily outlining the poem itself, but rather my response to the emotion and imagery that I want to convey. In the end, fiction has always been harder for me, so I need a more regimented approach to it opposed to poetry, which has always felt more organic.
 

• I’ve seen online that you practice witchcraft, has that impacted how or what you write?

Since I’ve started practicing, a lot of routines in my life have changed and evolved, and writing has certainly been one of them. But writing is a fickle beast for me these days, because I’ve had to/chose to take on a lot over the past few years (commissions, teaching gigs, editing projects, mentorships, etc.), so for the better part of my life recently, writing has been a do-it-when-you-can, where-you-can occurrence. I write a lot on my breaks at work, in the evenings, sometimes I even talk out loud and record my ideas on my commute in and out of work. So lately, the magic is just in making time and honoring a practice that brings me joy. However, when I do have time, I do like to make a bigger ritual out of it, and a lot of this helps with stress-management, allowing myself to be vulnerable, and most importantly, it gives me permission to relax. In that regard, I like to make my favorite tea, spend some time journaling/working in my visualization notebook, and even light some palo santo.
 

• What’s one of the most surprising things you’ve learned in creating your books and poetry collections?

Oh, this is a hard one! Well, some things I learned over the years and then specifically in my most recent collection, The Apocalyptic Mannequin, are: 1) sometimes you have cut poems that are good but don’t necessarily belong in the collection, 2) don’t write toward a magic number of poems—when the collection is done, it’s done, 3) the order you place your poems in matters and it’s something to spend time thinking about after you’ve finished writing the book, and 4) poetry often comes from a place of intense emotion or feeling and sometimes it’s going to hurt pulling that out, but it will always be worth it in the end.
 

• What’s your next project?

I’m finishing up a project that I’d honestly hoped to have out last year but life kind of snuck up on me and got in the way there for a bit. It will be a novelette titled The Dangers of Surviving a Slit Throat, and it will be a bizarre horror story about a girl and a radio that she picks up at a yard sale. After that, I have a few short stories and essays that I’d like to finish up, so that will keep me busy for a while.
 

• Where can people follow you online to keep up with all your amazing accomplishments (like the fact that you have a selection of poetry out in the recently resurrected Weird Tales)?

I’m active on Facebook, Twitter (@swytovich), Instagram (@swytovich), LinkedIn, and my blog (http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/ ) and my author website (https://www.stephaniemwytovich.com/). 

About The Apocalyptic Mannequin
Doomsday is here and the earth is suffering with each breath she takes. Whether it’s from the nuclear meltdown, the wrath of the Four Horsemen, a war with technology, or a consequence of our relationship with the planet, humanity is left buried and hiding, our bones exposed, our hearts beating somewhere in our freshly slit throats.
This is a collection that strips away civilization and throws readers into the lives of its survivors. The poems inside are undelivered letters, tear-soaked whispers, and unanswered prayers. They are every worry you’ve had when your electricity went out, and every pit that grew in your stomach watching the news at night. They are tragedy and trauma, but they are also grief and fear, fear of who—or what—lives inside us once everything is taken away.
These pages hold the teeth of monsters against the faded photographs of family and friends, and here, Wytovich is both plague doctor and midwife, both judge and jury, forever searching through severed limbs and exposed wires as she straddles the line evaluating what’s moral versus what’s necessary to survive.
What’s clear though, is that the world is burning and we don’t remember who we are.
So tell me: who will you become when it’s over?
What They’re Saying -
“Like a doomsday clock fast-forwarding to its final self-destruction, Wytovich’s poetry will give you whiplash as you flip through page after page. The writing here is ugly yet beautiful. It reads like a disease greedily eating up vital organs. The apocalypse has arrived and it couldn’t be more intoxicating!”
—Max Booth III, author of Carnivorous Lunar Activities
“In this hauntingly sensuous new collection of poetry, you’ll long to savor every apocalyptic nightmare you have ever feared. Blooming in the beauty of destruction and the terror of delight, Stephanie M Wytovich’s poems remind us that we feel the world better, love the world better, when we recognize the ephemeral nature of everything achingly alive beyond our mannequin minds. Here, we are captive to our deepest velvet snarls, zombie songs, and radioactive wishes, at the mercy of a neon reaping. Reading this collection is like dancing through Doomsday, intoxicated by the destructive, decadent truth of desire in our very mortality. In these poems, you will find revelry in the ruins of everything you once held dear — and you will love it to the last as you watch the world unravel around you.”
—Saba Syed Razvi, author of Heliophobia and In the Crocodile Gardens
“Beautifully bleak, Stephanie M. Wytovich’s latest collection posits scenarios of the apocalypse and the horrors to come thereafter with language like fragrant hooks in your skin. Vivid, each word a weight on your tongue, these poems taste of metal and ash with a hint of spice, smoke. She reminds us the lucky ones die first, and those who remain must face the horrors of a world painted in blisters and fear. Leave it to Wytovich to show us there’s beauty in the end, just beneath all that peeling, irradiated skin.”
—Todd Keisling, author of Ugly Little Things and Devil’s Creek
“Set in a post-apocalyptic world that at times seems all too near, Wytovich’s poems conjure up frighteningly beautiful and uncomfortably prescient imagery. Populated by a cast of unsettling, compelling characters, this collection is one that stuck with me.”
—Claire C. Holland, author of I Am Not Your Final Girl
“A surreal journey through an apocalyptic wasteland, a world that is terrifyingly reminiscent of our own even as the blare of evacuation alarms drowns out the sizzle of acid rain, smiling mannequins bear witness to a hundred thousand deaths, and “the forest floor grows femurs in the light of a skeletal moon.” Stephanie M. Wytovich’s The Apocalyptic Mannequin is as unsettling as it is lovely, as grotesque as it is exquisite.”
—Christa Carmen, author of Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked
Pre-Order Available (First 30 receive FREE personalized copy) -
Pre-Order Now!
Stephanie Wytovich, Biography –
Stephanie M. Wytovich is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her work has been showcased in numerous venues such as Weird Tales, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Fantastic Tales of Terror, Year's Best Hardcore Horror: Volume 2, The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 8, as well as many others. 

Wytovich is the Poetry Editor for Raw Dog Screaming Press, an adjunct at Western Connecticut State University, Southern New Hampshire University, and Point Park University, and a mentor with Crystal Lake Publishing. She is a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, an active member of the Horror Writers Association, and a graduate of Seton Hill University’s MFA program for Writing Popular Fiction. Her Bram Stoker Award-winning poetry collection, Brothel, earned a home with Raw Dog Screaming Press alongside Hysteria: A Collection of Madness, Mourning Jewelry, An Exorcism of Angels, Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare, and most recently, The Apocalyptic Mannequin. Her debut novel, The Eighth, is published with Dark Regions Press. 
​

Today we meet Betty Rocksteady who writes stories about cat mythos, bizarro, and cosmic sex! What more could you ask for? I'm currently reading her collection of shorts, In Dreams We Rot for a review. Once finished, I'll post that as well, but so far I'm really digging it. It's worth grabbing once it comes out. Now onward to the interview!

1)      Who or what inspired you to become an author?
 
I can't pin it down on one particular author so much as just… books, as an object, as an escape, as my main way of learning about the world as a kid. As an introvert growing up in the 80s, writing and art were always a huge part of my life. Surprise though, I didn't start REALLY writing until I turned 30 and realized, oh heck, it's now or never.
 
2)      Tell us a about your upcoming collection, In Dreams We Rot, and what inspired you to write it.
 
In Dreams We Rot is a collection of my best short stories that have been published over the last few years. The bulk of my writing thus far has been short fiction and I've had a lot of pieces published by cool indie publishers that I'm so excited to share with my readers. In Dreams We Rot bleeds with imagery you'll recognize from your nightmares, inspiring the title. I take a lot of writing inspiration from my dreams, and I really dig weaving surrealist themes and creatures into my work.
 
3)      Your writing is categorized as cosmic sex horror and bizarro. What attracted you to those genres?
 
A reader described my novella, The Writhing Skies as cosmic sex horror and it seemed like the perfect description to me! I don't think about genre a whole lot when I'm writing unless it's for a specific call. I mostly just think of my work as the very general "horror." As for bizarro, it's a really wide genre but the whole cult movie/Eraserhead vibe is definitely something that gets me going.
 
4)      Tell a bit about your writing process. Do you have a special space you like to use, or do you have to be in a certain mindset?
 
I'm still trying to figure this out, but no matter what I do, writing rough drafts is always absolute torture! I much prefer brainstorming, and then the editing process. The first draft is just a skeleton that I try to bang out as quick as possible. Lately I've been using a little laptop to type on, but I think I actually focus better when I'm sitting at the desktop computer, so I guess I'll have to keep fine-tuning there. I do usually listen to music while I write, either movie soundtracks, or trip hop playlists on YouTube, or, very often, Aesop Rock's soundtrack for Bushwick.
 
5)      What’s one of the most surprising things you’ve learned in creating your books?
 
Well, my first novella, Arachnophile is about an arachnophobic guy in a world where giant spiders coexist with human. He accidentally falls in lust… or maybe love with a giant spider. So, not only did I discover how to write sex scenes for the first time in the most bizarre way possible, but I discovered that uh, a surprising amount of people will read those sex scenes and see spiders in a way they never expected, at least according to the reviews it's gotten.
 
6)      What’s your next project?
 
Right now I'm working on a kidnapping book about the depths of female friendships and doppelgangers! It's inspired by John Fowles' The Collector and its shaping up to be the best thing I've ever written.
 
7)      Where can people follow you online to keep up with all your updates?
 
I'm all over twitter and Facebook as Betty Rocksteady, and my website is www.bettyrocksteady.com! People should feel super free to reach out and hang out.
 
If you're interested in checking out my work, I have a disturbing cat mythos story available to read free here: https://theoutwardinn.wordpress.com/2019/05/10/the-backwards-path-to-the-limbus-by-betty-rocksteady/
 
In Dreams We Rot is being released October 17, 2019, and you can preorder it here! http://journalstone.com/bookstore/in-dreams-we-rot

1) Who or what inspired you to become an author?
 
Great question. Great mystery. Really, it’s something I’m still trying to answer for myself, but, here’s what I’ve got so far: I think I have a hard time making sense of the world. Writing scary stories gives me the opportunity to at least pretend that things make sense, or, at least examine why they don’t. I think that’s probably the purpose of any story, really, no matter how horrific; to help us overcome the things that threaten to overcome us.

When I was a kid, I loved stories for that reason. I think I had a lot of hidden anxiety that didn’t make sense to me, something to do with growing up gay in the 90s in a small town, I’m sure. I wrote a lot. Then, I was seduced by film and I pursued that instead. So, most of my formative years were ruled by the likes of George A. Romero, Clive Barker, Dario Argento, John Carpenter, and, of course, Wes Craven. Craven is probably the one whose work inspired me the most. I often thought to myself that I’d love to make a movie that was as smart as Craven, poetic as Barker, fun as Raimi, gorgeous as Argento and politically charged as Romero… Big shoes. After attending film school in Toronto, I figured out just how expensive my ideas would be to make. Thus, I decided to return to writing so that my stories might live somewhere other than just in my own head (where they had begun gnawing).
 
2) Tell us about your book, Worship Me, and what inspired you to write it.
 
So, Worship Me is my first novel. It’s a novel that’s supposed to scare you, challenge you, and maybe make you puke a little, like any good horror does. But, that’s not the only reason why I wrote it; I wrote it because I had to.
 
The story came about as part of my grieving process. Now, this part of my journey with Worship Me gets a little dark, as a warning. 12 years ago, my sister was diagnosed with a brain tumour. 7 years ago, she died from it. Before she died, she suffered quite a lot, as anyone who has had experience with brain tumours would know. It’s harrowing. Slow. Torturous. And something I decided a while ago to speak bluntly about. Watching someone you love go through something like that rips apart everything you think you know about life, death and spirituality. I found that in order to deal with that horror, I needed a place to put it; and that place became the little country church in Worship Me.
 
3) Take our readers through your writing process. Do you have any spaces you always write in or anything special you do to get into the right mindset?
 
My writing process is erratic. I rarely sit down to write; it’s more like the writing sits me down. I can be riding a bus, cooking, sleeping, and my mind just starts rambling. And I’m like, “Okay, that’s nice. Sleepy now.” And it’s like, “Sleep is for the weak. I have words for you.” I have yet to be stricken with writer’s block. That doesn’t seem to be a problem for me. Writer’s laziness, on the other than, I have suffered from that.

I find that music really helps to bring me back to a character if they’ve gotten lost. I will often write different pieces of music for my stories, scoring them like a film. That’s been a great help. You can check out a few of the tracks on my website if you’re interested:
 
https://everythingcraigstewart.com/2017/06/29/featured-content/
 
 
4) Your writing deals with the themes of religion and atheism, care to expand on those topics with regards to your projects?
 
I was raised as a church goin’ boy. It didn’t stick. For me, it was partly due to my sexuality. It’s hard to buy into an organization that doesn’t really want you around. Things are different now; churches seem, at least on the surface, far more accepting. But, that’s just because they’re in their death thralls and are desperate to fill those pews, and collection plates. Do I think that if progressive society didn’t pressure them to open their doors to LGBT people, that they would have opened them on their own? Seems unlikely.
 
But, that was only half of it; the other half concerns what happened to my sister. When someone has a brain tumour, they go through many traumatic changes. These changes are brought on by a small piece of tissue in the brain that shouldn’t be there. In other words, it becomes terrifyingly clear that the whole of a person is contained within their fragile brainpan. Nothing more than that. Nothing less. And if that’s true, if we are altered when our brain is altered, then where does that leave spirituality? Or, God? I didn’t set out to write a book that was aggressively atheistic, but, I did want to explore the issues of flesh vs. faith. And I think the book speaks for itself on that matter.
 
5)  What’s one of the most surprising things you’ve learned in creating your books?
 
Sometimes, characters don’t want to shut up. It’s a wonderful surprise. I was writing a chapter a while back and introduced this character named Zelda. She was a side character, just supposed to serve the plot. In and out. But, she stuck around. She kept talking. Before I knew it, a pivotal scene was hinged on her. How did that happen? Where did she come from? Is there a fine line between split personality and writing?
 
6) What’s your next project?
 
So glad you asked! My new book, Follow Him, which is a sister novel to Worship Me, is being released by Hellbound Books in the fall of this year. It’s about a man who joins a mysterious cult called The Shared Heart, but is kidnapped by his ex-fiancé, who attempts to deprogram him with horrifying consequences. If Worship Me is about religion, then Follow Him is about love. I’m very excited to see how people react to it.
 
7)  Where can people follow you online to keep up with all your updates?

I’m fairly active on twitter. You can check me out @TheCraigStewart. I also have a website, everythingcraigstewart.com. There’s also a little Facebook thing, www.facebook.com/CraigStewartAuthor.

What kind of books/stories do you write?
*Horror, fantasy, science fiction, and some good old-fashioned western. You know, the kind of thing at which a lot of people turn their nose up. I’ve never had much use for reading a book about someone getting up and going to work, then going home for dinner. Unless, of course, that person encounters an alien on the way to work, arrives home to find a slaughtered family member with an orc standing over the body. I have enough angst and worry in my own life; I don’t really have time to have it in my fiction. But, if that’s your thing? More power to you. I say live and let live. You write what you enjoy, I’ll write what I enjoy and we’ll (hopefully) both be happy.
 
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
*I think it was sometime in the fourth grade. Mrs. Pardoe made a positive comment on something I had written. I’ve been seeking more of that praise ever since, as well as the fulfillment I felt at entertaining someone with the written word.

What do you consider the most influential book you've ever read?
*Man…that’s a tough one to answer. A lot of genre writers point to On Writing by Stephen King. I’m not going to, although it’s a good work. I think that The Phantom Tollbooth would be on that list, largely because of the brilliant wordplay and great message. Also on that list is Killer Angels (one of only a few books that has ever brought me to tears) for teaching me that well-written books could truly cause tears. The Shining (one of only a few books that has genuinely scared me) for, well, teaching me that the written word had the power to terrify. I’m also a Lord of the Rings fanatic; the prose, poetry, and world-building (including language creation) is truly amazing. I could probably go on for pages about my influences, actually.

What other authors are you friends with, and how have they helped you become a better writer?
Sheesh…where do I start? Who do I offend by leaving off the list (or, in some cases, putting ON the list)? I know I’ll forget someone (and if I do, it’s unintentional), but I’ll start the list with you, Cody.
 
Cody Langille: Expand my horizons.
D.J. Butler: Persevere; stand up for myself.
Tracy Hickman: It’s OK to reinvent myself; the need to listen to the voices once in a while.
Bob Defendi: Humor is perfectly acceptable in large doses as well as small ones.
Brad Torgerson: Shoot for the stars, you may just make it there.
Paul Genesse: Dragons are real.
Alan Bahr: Tiny things can be really powerful.
Michael Collings: Poetry is cool. Really cool.
Michaelbrent Collings: Make sure that you breathe in every time you breathe out.
Nathan Shumate: B movies aren’t bad.
Johnny Worthen: Tie dye is cool and badgers are awesome.
David Farland: Magic systems aren’t easy to create.
Terra Luft: Someone out there will always need your expertise, no matter how random or obscure.
Scott Forman: Don’t feel the need to go along even when everyone around you is…just be yourself.
John Olsen: Just because you stick a gear on it, it doesn’t mean it’s steampunk.
Lehua Parker: Never judge a book by its cover.
Al Carlisle: Real life makes awesome book fodder.
Charlie Harmon: What others see as an obstacle may not be.
Michael Darling: Good guys don’t always finish last.
David West: Someone else thinks smoking jackets look cool.
Larry Correia: Pick a card. Any card.

What’s the best way you've found to market your books?
*Largely I’ve relied on various forms of social media. I also have some blogging friends that have passed along the message. It’s worked well enough, but there’s certainly room for improvement. It’s not the “best” way, but right now the “only” way, based on time and life factors.

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
*Name it. <laughs> Hours spent at the State Library. Ancient art objects found in online museum collections and galleries. Maps of all shapes, sizes, and types. Those ubiquitous internet searches that make most genre authors a little nervous about potential NSA monitoring. Most recently was a purchase of a vintage book filled with blueprints and sketches of Victorian houses. Inspiration and research can be found everywhere, so I have a hard time putting a time frame on my research. You could say I’m always researching, I just don’t know for what.

Any last thoughts for our readers?
*To date, much of what I’ve published has been with small presses (at least one of which is defunct). It can make for some easier publication, but more difficult distribution and marketing. But if you can get published, do it. Make sure you research the presses first, but be wiling to take a chance if the terms are in your favor. I’ve passed up some opportunities that I now regret. As with everything else, once an opportunity passes, it can be difficult to get it back.

What kind of books/stories do you write?
 
Most of the books and stories I publish fall into a literary genre called magical realism. Magical realism has elements of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, but its main focus is on presenting magic or the supernatural in an otherwise realistic or mundane setting. Characters don’t use magic spells or technology to interact with the supernatural; it simply exists. Magical realism is what happens when the real world is invaded by things too strange to believe and often has elements of fables, myths, and allegory presented through an indigenous peoples’ perspective. 
 
Magical realism authors include people like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alice Hoffman, and Salman Rushdie. A lot of the work of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Joe Hill crosses into magical realism, but since they write from a western worldview, they aren’t identified with the genre.
 
Many of my books and stories are set in the fictional town of Lauele, Hawaii. Lauele is set in contemporary Hawaii, but it’s a Hawaii where ancient deities and cultural expectations and obligations have resonance and power. The supernatural lives among humans and interacts with them, but most human don’t realize it.
 
The people in Lauele are a lot like the people I grew up with. In my stories, characters face real-world issues and challenges that arise from Hawaiian vs. western culture perspectives. The stories are centered around defining family, understanding cultural heritage, preserving the past, navigating clashes between traditional Hawaiian values and western society, fighting nature vs. nurture, destiny vs. free will, and learning how to define oneself with integrity based on an internal moral compass. 
 
 
 
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
 
I can’t remember the first story I wrote, but my mom has a few that I created when I was five or so. My first professional publication was an essay I wrote in the third grade that made it into the local newspaper. I’m not going to lie; autographing the copies to send to my grandparents was pretty cool.
 
Through my teen years and into college I had short stories, poetry, and essays published and a couple of plays and screenplays produced. At the same time, I was doing a lot of video work for cable tv as a writer, on-air talent, producer, and director. My parents encouraged me to follow the video path over the writing, so that’s what I did. (Actually, they wanted me to go to law school, but that’s another story.) I earned a BA in Communications by majoring in Mediated Message Design and Research with a double-minor in Creative Writing and Video Production.
 
My career has wandered like a drunken sailor. I’ve been a studio manager, television director, senior instructional designer, corporate director, ghost writer, copyeditor, theater critic, web designer, business and training consultant, and an English and history teacher—to name a few.
 
While writing and telling stories were always a part of everything I did, it wasn’t until about six years ago that I decided to go back to my first love and write fiction. It was snowing outside, so of course I decided to write about being at the beach. Without a completed manuscript, in 2011 I signed my first book contract with Jolly Fish Press for the Niuhi Shark Saga, a five-book MG/YA series.
 
 
 
What do you consider the most influential book you've ever read?
 
This is like asking me which child is my favorite. (It’s you, sweetheart, the one who’s reading this. Shhhhh. Don’t tell your sibling.) I’ve read more than 20,000 books and short stories and read another 200 or so book each year. I couldn’t tell you who my favorite author is, let alone which book was most influential. I seldom read a book more than once, but the books I return to are those by Diana Gabaldon, Jim Butcher, Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Terry Pratchett, JK Rowling, and Amy Tan.
 
 
 
What other authors are you friends with, and how have they helped you become a better writer?
 
At this stage of my career, networking and collaboration are less about becoming a better writer and more about becoming better at business. I’ve gone from a shotgun approach to focusing effort on events that are highly targeted and aligned with my own goals.
 
But when I first started writing again, I got heavily involved with many different writing groups. I even founded some of them. I understood the power of collaboration and networking and devoted a lot of time to building communities and supporting newbie authors.
 
Slowly, I realized that in order to keep the writing groups cohesive and relevant, I was spending all of my time on projects that built community, but took me away from what I was passionate about. My own writing was taking a backseat to organizing groups and editing other people’s work. My family life was suffering. Something had to change.
 
Over the last few years, I’ve significantly reduced the amount of time I spend with local writing communities. Because of this, I’ve been more productive and have four new books in print, sold several short stories, and placed essays with literary magazines. While I have a solid group of professional writing friends, we support each other through email and only see each other at big regional conferences or events.
 
 
What’s the best way you've found to market your books?
 
In May 2016, I received my rights back for the first two Niuhi Shark books from Jolly Fish Press. As Makena Press, I revised and republished them along with the third in the series in July 2016. I went from marketing as a traditionally published author to marketing as an indy press.
 
Marketing thousands of miles from my core audience is tough. By far the most successful marketing I’ve done was to take a few books to Hawaii and drop them off at libraries and schools. From those twenty donated books I’ve built a readership and following that is expanding across the Pacific. Schools are adopting the series into their curriculums, and I was nominated for a major children’s choice award. I do school visits using remote video conferencing and will be a featured guest at a children’s literature conference in Hawaii in 2018. Most of my sales are now coming organically from word of mouth.
 
Even indy-published, I sell about 100 print copies for every eBook copy. That means that most of the successful marketing strategies used by small presses and indy publishers don’t work for me. To grow my audience and market share, I’m looking to partner with an international big press publisher or distributor.
 
 
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
 
In between writing the books, I read a lot of journals and non-fiction books about Hawaiian history, culture, native plants, ecology, migration patterns—you name it. I also read a lot of literature about Pacific legends and myths. I watch Shark Week reruns. I’m constantly adding to my resource library.
 
Before I begin a new novel, I only outline a very basic plot and rely on my characters to tell me the story—I tend to write by the seat of my pants. When I’m in the middle of writing a book, things pop up that I need to know, but never anticipate, like how to customize the paint on a surfboard or how long it takes an active teen to rehab after losing a limb or how stowaways could get on a cruise ship or which K-Pop heartthrobs are the hottest this week.
 
During the creation phase, Google is my buddy and nemesis—a great black vortex that sucks me down interesting paths that never make it into a book.
 
 
Any last thoughts for our readers?
 
Writers by nature are a mercurial blend of chuffed ego, eternal optimism, and deeply held insecurities. The ones who are in it for the long haul are those who learn to define success by their own terms. They understand that as their career changes, what defines success changes, too. If you want to be a writer, write because you love it. Write because you have something only you can say. Fill your days with good books, movies, and music, but keep the most important things first in your life. Enjoy the time and season that you’re in. You may only be able to write an hour a day or in fifteen minute blocks. You’re still a writer. Compare less and enjoy more. The journey really is the destination.

Links: http://www.lehuaparker.com/ 

What kind of books/stories do you write?
I think they are all action-adventure but thrown in with fantasy, sci-fi, and horror.
 
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Really hard to say, but I’ve been writing my own stories since I was a kid and just figured I would always write books once I got older.
 
What do you consider the most influential book you've ever read?
That’s a very hard one. But the original Conan tales by Robert E. Howard are the ones that made say to myself, this is what I need to be doing.
 
What other authors are you friends with, and how have they helped you become a better writer?
I’m friends with lots of great people, more than I can possibly name here, but Dave Butler has been a remarkable inspiration for creative productivity and a can do attitude, Larry Correia tells it like it is, Jason King because he has faith in me, and so many more. I have to give credit to Carter Reid for introducing me to “My People” though, because before I knew Carter I felt very alone in the local creative world. All of them make me want to UP my game, so that’s good because it makes you grow and try harder. I’ve always got to be innovating and pushing myself beyond the comfort zone.
 
What’s the best way you've found to market your books?
It helps when you find a community, but on top of that, I had to finally ditch “Hope” as a marketing strategy and start learning what it takes to push books online. 95% of all my book sales are online, so I had to research and school myself on how to maximize that. And its something I’m still doing, still experimenting with. As the world changes, we have to change with it. I can’t say enough about utilizing Amazon Marketing Services – but you have to have things lined up just right. It is a science.
 
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
I’m often still researching while in the middle of the book and then even in the edits, I’ll be adding in things and tweaking it. So for me at least its an ongoing process. I usually have a pretty grasp on what I’m doinhg and where I’m going, but if something I find out “fits” I’ll find a place for it to heighten the story.
 
Any last thoughts for our readers?
I love this quote from Nick Cole, “Write the junk that you want to read.” I 100% agree with that, you have to love what you do.
 
Links:
My blog, www.kingdavidjwest.com

What kind of books/stories do you write?
 
First off, thank you so much for the interview, Cody! I write in all kinds of different genres (action/hero, inspirational, young adult, police/crime, etc). However, the one common theme of all my works is that I try to write books with strong themes/messages that will stay with the reader long after they put the work down.
 
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
 
The story goes that I actually realized that I wanted to be a writer in the 2nd Grade. The main catalyst for my writing was my 2nd Grade Teacher at AP Beutel, Mrs. Scott. When I was in her class years ago, she gave me a homework assignment to write a one-page story. This was the first time I ever wrote anything, and I was inspired with the dream to be a NY Times Bestselling author one day! That experience breathed the love of writing into me and I’ve never stopped since!

What do you consider the most influential book you've ever read?
 
The biggest influential books I’ve read is Og Mandino’s The Greatest Miracle in The World & The Choice.

What other authors are you friends with, and how have they helped you become a better writer?
 
I get invited to a lot of local Comic Cons, so that is definitely one of my better opportunities to network with other authors. However, one of my best influences has been my former English Professor, Dr. Joy. She is a short story writer and her works have appeared in numerous publications. She was one of my major encouragements and inspiration to begin writing professionally.

What’s the best way you've found to market your books?
 
The best way to market books is to just be steady. There is no gimmick that will automatically make a book go viral and sell millions of copies. Instead, a writer builds their audience one reader at a time. I’ve found that doing a combination of a lot of techniques (reviews, interviews, guest posts, etc.) is the best way to build an audience.

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
 
It depends on the work. For historical works, obviously there is a ton of research done to ensure the work is authentic and factually accurate. My award-winning historical novel, Memories Of My Future, included months of research before I started writing it since I wanted to make sure that all my historical facts were in order. However, most of my novels may take a month or two at max for research, since those all take place in more imaginative worlds.

Any last thoughts for our readers?
 
Thank you again for the interview, Cody! If anybody has any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out to me at ahabibwr@yahoo.com

Links/promotional things:
 
My books are available at:
https://www.amazon.com/Ammar-Habib/e/B00MMQVI9C/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Ammar+Habib?_requestid=950803
 
I can be found at:
www.ammarahsenhabib.com
https://www.facebook.com/ammarahsenhabib 
https://twitter.com/AmmarAHabib1
https://instagram.com/ammar.a.habib/